Not Meant to Be
by vanillaninja2032
Summary: Two girls from the 21st century get switched with Tonia Barrows and Janice Rand in a transporter accident, leaving four women trapped in different times.  How will the crew react to the new additions?  Will they ever go home?  R&R!
1. Troubles through Time

A/N: This fic is co-written by Shke Behet and vanillaninja2032. Also, we know our science is off, so just humor us. Some of this is going to be more realistic than the show, as far as time differences goes, but other than that, we're going to try to keep it canon.

Troubles through Time

"Standard orbit Mr. Sulu. Lieutenant Uhura, authorize shore leave for all off-duty personnel." Captain James T. Kirk sat in his chair on the Enterprise as it entered standard orbit around Earth. It had been four years since any of the crew had been to Earth, and many were eager to visit their families. They were just ending a mission that involved the transportation of several ambassadors from newly joined Federation planets. Starfleet had granted the Enterprise a week of respite before returning to their mission. All of the crewmen that came from Earth had been abuzz since they got back, and no doubt the ship would be empty for the next week. Kirk leaned back in his chair, he himself wouldn't mind touching down briefly, but he was overseeing the restocking of the ships supplies while they were here.

Two levels down, Yeoman Janice Rand was headed to her quarters to pick up her things before transporting down to Earth. She double-checked her bags, making sure she had the gifts she had bought for her parents and sister over the time she had spent in space. As she exited her quarters she ran into her fellow Yeoman, Tonia Barrows. She smiled and fell in step with her.

"On your way down?"

"Yes, I just finished my duties on the bridge and the captain released me for shore leave." Janice smiled and nodded. Barrows and she had become friends after an away mission involving a capricious alien that tried wooing them at the same time.

"Yes, I'm looking forward to going home, it's been so long."

"I know, I'm looking forward to doing some shopping. What time are you meeting your family? I know a cute shop that sells the best coffee; you should join me for a cup."

"That sounds nice." They entered the transporter room together just as the last people were beaming down.

"Looks like you two are the last today." They stepped onto the transporter and waited as the transporter chief worked the controls. Suddenly, the lights flickered. Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment. The transporter chief looked down at the controls.

"Everything seems normal, energize." But just as the two Yeomen began to disappear, the lights flickered again. "What's going on? Stabilize them, quickly!" The junior grade lieutenant next to him quickly hit several buttons.

"Something's wrong sir, I'm losing them!"

"Dammit!" He pushed the man out of the way and quickly entered the emergency sequence that would hopefully bring the two Yeomen back to the transporting pad. Their forms shimmered in and out and finally solidified as they lights stopped flickering. The chief sighed in relief, but the lieutenant pointed at the transporting pad in alarm.

"Oh no."

Two Hundred and Fifty-Seven Years in the Past…

"And this is where Starfleet headquarters is supposed to be." A small brunette took pictures of the piers in San Francisco. "That's where the _Bounty_ must have crashed in the _Voyage Home_." She pointed out into the bay area and almost hit her friend in her exuberance. Her tall blonde companion nodded.

"Cool, I never saw that."

"I've got it on DVD, we can watch it when we get home." The brunette put away her camera and strolled around, trying to imagine how Starfleet fit in with the surroundings. She and her friend had just finished their junior year of college and were taking a much needed vacation to the west coast.

"It's going to rain." She watched the black clouds roll in from the coast.

"Yeah probably." The brunette pulled out her camera again. "Let's get a picture of the Golden Gate before we leave. Excuse me sir, do you mind taking our picture?" She handed her camera to an old man and posed with her friend on the pier, the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. The old man took the picture just as a bolt of lightning struck, and they faded from sight.

"Oh no." The lieutenant ran forward and caught the girl before she hit the floor, her hand on her head in pain.

"What, did the flash not go off? Wait, where are we?" She looked over to see her companion standing next to her looking bewildered. "And what are you wearing?" Her friend didn't respond. She was staring in shock at, something. The brunette stood up and turned around to thank the nice Samaritan who helped her up, when her voice caught in her throat. The man looked normal, except that he was wearing a Star Trek security uniform. She looked down and realized that she too was wearing a security uniform, that is, the one for the female crew members.

"What the heck…." She jumped when she heard a voice boom through the room.

"Transporter, status." Nobody answered, the two men were staring at the two girls who were staring at the two men.

"Transporter room, respond." One of the two men reached over and hit a button on the wall.

"Yes, captain."

"Status?" The two girls didn't move. The man swallowed.

"We were in the process of transporting two personnel down to the surface when we had a power surge, twice sir. And when it stopped, two women appeared."

"Two women, Lieutenant?"

"Yes sir, where we were transporting down the other personnel. They're even in their uniforms!" There was a pause.

"I'll be right down. Run a diagnostic, then stand by."

"Yes sir." The lieutenant hesitantly turned his attention to the transporter. The two women had yet to move or speak. Everyone was in a state of shock waiting for the captain to appear. The brunette's eyes were sweeping the room. This looked like the transporter room from Star Trek. The voice sounded like William Shatner, and the technology worked the same as in Star Trek. The clothes she and her friend were wearing were the same from Star Trek. But she wouldn't even allow the thought to form in her head. She was not in the Enterprise; she couldn't be in the Enterprise. And that was not Captain Kirk that just walked into the room. Or Scotty, or Spock, or a random red shirt.

"What happened?" He stopped when he caught sight of the two girls, clad in the red dresses of his female security personnel. The taller of the two had long blonde hair, pale skin, and green eyes. She took a step back onto the transporter with wide eyes. Her dress was too short, and too tight across the chest, obviously the wrong size. The shorter girl had short layered brown hair, tan skin, and blue eyes. She just gaped at him in amazement. He held up his hands.

"I'm not going to hurt you. Can you tell me what happened?" Neither girl spoke. He grabbed his communicator out of his back pocket and flipped it open.

"Bones, get to the transporter room."

"What's wrong Jim?"

"Just get down here."

"On my way." Kirk flipped his communicator closed and attempted to get closer to the girls. The short one jumped back, terror and confusion written in her eyes. Whatever had happened, these girls were just as confused as he was.

"What's your name?" The girls eyed each other, silently communicating. It was the brunette that spoke first.

"Maddy." He looked at the blonde, trying to gain her trust.

"Lia."

"Pretty names. I'm Jim." Lia frowned and Maddy stared at him like he was an interesting animal that just did a trick. He turned to Scotty.

"Check the transporter, see what happened. I want to know where my crewmen are, and how these two ended up in their places." Lia patted her dress and looked to Maddy.

"If we're in their clothes, does that mean they're in ours?" Spock stepped forward.

"That may be possible." She started, as if she had forgotten there was anyone else in the room. At that moment, the door slid open to reveal an older brown haired man. McCoy.

"Now Jim, what's going….on." He caught sight of the two girls and stared. Lia lifted her chin slightly, she was uncomfortable with the attention they were getting. Maddy's mouth dropped open again. She felt a squeal build up in her, and she had to fight from saying anything and revealing her inner fangirl. She failed when a stray thought entered her mind.

"I'm in someone else's underwear." She was suddenly very uncomfortable and started pulling on the uniform. Everyone was staring at her and she was suddenly very torn between hoping this was a dream and wishing that she was actually here. Maybe if she was on the Enterprise in her own clothes it would be better.

"Jim, what is this?"

"I'll tell you Bones, just as soon as I know for myself. Spock?" The Vulcan folded his arms.

"It seems that when we were caught by that ion storm, it affected the transporter beam. While beaming down, it seems there was a….switch."

"A switch, Mr. Spock?" Spock walked up closer to the two girls, causing Lia to back into a wall.

"Yes Captain, likely these two young women were in the spot of the beam down, the ion waves altering the nature of the beam and switching them. I believe our personnel can be found on the transport pad in Starfleet command, alive and well except for the change of attire." He gestured to the dresses, which Lia pulled the edges of uncomfortably. She looked up and saw Kirk staring at her. She looked over at Maddy, who was staring at the whole room. She suddenly grabbed her wrist and felt her pulse, then rushed over and grabbed Lia's wrist.

"We're not dead! This is real, wait, I could be dreaming." She slapped herself, causing McCoy to snap into medical mode.

"What are you doing?" He grabbed her wrist to keep her from slapping herself again. "Why do you think you're dead? I never trusted transporters. Dang blasted machines, a human body's not meant to travel like that." He was examining her cheek where she slapped herself. She felt her cheeks heat up and was worried that McCoy would mistake her blush for a fever.

"Captain, something else is unusual about these two. They seem to have an unusual energy field surrounding them. If I am not mistaken, they are surrounded by a large amount of tachyon particles." Spock held his tricorder up as he read the numbers flashing on its screen.

"Tachyons, Mr. Spock?"

"Indeed. A possible effect of the ion storm mixing with the transporter beam. I must analyze this further." McCoy turned around.

"That's all well and good, but I need to get these two to sick bay, they're looking green around the gills. I need to make sure nothing altered them in the transporter." And indeed, Lia was looking paler than usual. She leaned against the wall and put a hand to her head.

"Oh, I need an Advil." Spock raised an eyebrow. McCoy began to lead Maddy out of the room.

"Advil?"

"A brand of pain inhibitor from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries."

"Spock, you don't think?"

"I don't know Captain. It would explain the tachyon particles." They both turned and looked at Lia, just as she stumbled. The security officer that came in with Kirk caught her before she fell. Kirk started forward himself.

"Take her to sick bay, we'll be there shortly." He nodded and helped her out of the room. Kirk turned toward Scotty.

"I need to know exactly what happened here Scotty. Mr. Spock, find the source of those tachyon particles." He left the room and headed up to the bridge to check their present course.

Meanwhile, Lia thought she was going to die. She was sick, nauseous, and dizzy. It felt like her insides were turning inside-out. She eyed the security officer beside her uneasily. She didn't know as much about Star Trek as Maddy, but she did know one thing. Red shirts always die. And as long as she was around the red shirt her life was in danger. She needed to get away from the red shirt before some alien came and decided to start causing trouble. The anxiety was almost as bad as the nausea. She let out a breath of relief once they entered the med-bay. She was safe for now. She was guided toward a red and gold bed and made to lie down, which she did gladly. A blonde woman in a blue dress hovered over her holding a small metal object that was giving off a whizzing sound. She watched her tiredly.

"What's wrong?"

"You're suffering from space sickness, is this your first time out?" She watched the nurse carefully.

"Yes." She nodded.

"I'll give you something to ease the symptoms. In a few days, you'll be up and about like normal." She took out a hypospray and grabbed her arm. Lia didn't resist her and she injected the hypospray. Almost immediately she felt better. Though she was still slightly dizzy, she no longer felt like she was going to throw up or faint. She sat up and smiled at who she recognized was Nurse Chapel.

"Thanks, where's my friend?" Chapel pointed at the other end of the room, where McCoy was holding up a similar whizzing device over Maddy and frowning. She walked over just as Maddy was speaking.

"Can I take my underwear off?" McCoy paused. So did Lia, before letting out a laugh. McCoy turned around.

"Feeling better? Nurse, what was her diagnostic?"

"Space sickness Doctor, I gave her a hypospray to ease the symptoms." McCoy looked distracted.

"Uh huh, do a full scan, will you Nurse? I'll need it on file."

"Yes Doctor, if you would." Chapel gestured back to the bed she had originally got up from and Lia went and lay back down on it, starting to feel uneasy. If this was real and she wasn't dreaming, they were bound to find something unusual. While McCoy's back was turned she mouthed to Maddy.

"What happened?" Maddy shrugged her shoulders and shook her head, indicating that she had no idea and was just as confused as she was. She lay back as the whizzing device examined her. She kept her face blank as Chapel frowned.

"Doctor-" But McCoy cut her off.

"Get these vaccines ready Nurse, I'll be right back." He handed her a data pad and headed toward the door, just as it slid open and revealed Kirk and Spock.

"Bones, are those two up to talking?"

"Physically they're fine Jim, some space sickness, nothing that can't be dealt with, but…"

"But?"

"But some of these readings I took just don't make sense."

"How so?"

"Their bodies are different. Everything's where it should be and works the way it needs to, but some minor things are abnormal."

"How so Doctor?"

"They have a higher bone density, and anti-bodies to diseases that haven't existed in hundreds of years. They have zero anti-bodies to diseases that are commonly vaccinated against now. Vaccines that are required at a young age. Not to mention some maladies that should have been cured years ago. It just doesn't make any sense, and it's not just one of them it's both."

"Interesting. Your readings match with a theory I have formed." They both looked toward the Vulcan.

"When the two Yeomen beamed down, it coincided with a large ionic wave that swept through the ship, changing the nature of the beam. Instead of simply transporting through space, it transported the Yeomen through time as well. In the exact spot where Starfleet command's transporter pad stands in San Francisco, these two were standing more than two hundred years in the past. My theory is that an unusual amount of ionic waves must have been in that area at the same time, and connected through time, switching the forms of those transporting into each other's places."

"So you're saying my two Yeomen are now in the past." Spock nodded and Kirk stared at the two young women lying on the two beds.

"Can those conditions be simulated?" Spock shook his head.

"The ionic waves must appear in both places Captain. Though we could simulate them here, there is no way we could simulate them in the past."

"So all four of them are stuck in time periods where they don't belong."

"That is correct."

"Well that just sucks for us." They looked over and for the first time noticed that the girls were paying attention to them. Maddy was sitting on a bed and waving her arms around. "I mean that really sucks. We can't be in the future. What the hell are we supposed to do? I left my credit card there." Lia stared at her.

"Who cares?" She gestured to the room at large and Maddy nodded.

"You're right, they don't have credit cards here. Can I have pants?" Kirk and Spock looked at each other, and McCoy grabbed a hypospray.

"These two need to be quarantined until they've been vaccinated. Anyone who's touched them will need to be inoculated again as well." Kirk nodded.

"Do it, how long will they need to be in quarantine?"

"Twenty four hours." Kirk caught Lia's eyes and she watched him warily. He inclined his head.

"Then until tomorrow ladies. Bones, contact me as soon as it is safe for them to leave quarantine." He nodded to Spock and the two of them left the room. McCoy and Nurse Chapel each were holding several hyposprays.

"You'll feel several mild side effects that may conflict with your space sickness, therefore I'm going to sedate the two of you." Panic appeared in Lia's eyes for a moment, then died down. Maddy nodded.

"Okay." For the next several minutes the girls were inundated with a flood of vaccines for everything from the space flu to Klingon chicken-pox. No vaccine for the common cold though, they still hadn't discovered that.

"I feel like a pincushion." Lia moved her arms, trying to work the soreness out of her system.

"Ditto." Maddy slumped on the bed. McCoy had isolated them in the sick-bay and was currently inoculating himself and everyone else they had come in contact with. For the first time since they got there they were essentially alone. "What now it's not like we can tell them they're a TV show."

"They're not or we wouldn't be here, but if we don't tell them something, we might slip up and they'll think we're liars."

"No way, that's a really bad idea. They'd never believe us."

"We have to tell them. The stuff we know could be a liability."

"And it could alter their future if they knew we knew."

"But the show ended after three seasons. We don't know anything after that until the first movie, so if we should find out what year it is if it's after the three years we have nothing to worry about. We should at least tell Spock."

"Who would tell Kirk, because he would be duty bound."

"The two of them should know because otherwise they'll be trying to send us to the past, not a different dimension." Maddy sighed, Lia was right they had to tell them what they knew.

"Okay, we tell Spock in the morning." Lia nodded her head in approval and leaned back on the bed as the sedative overpowered her and she fell asleep.


	2. Soft Lighting

A/N: Thank you to Kitty243 for reviewing, we love you! We want to know what you think, so please drop us a line!

Soft Lighting

Maddy shifted on her bed, irritated. She couldn't seem to get comfortable, for some reason her bed was harder than usual. And smaller.

"Ow." She sat up and rubbed her head as a beeping started over her bed. Nurse Chapel came running into the room, and helped her up.

"What happened?"

"Nothing, I just fell off the bed. How long have I been sleeping?" She looked around to see Lia stirring, probably from the noise she'd been making.

"Eleven hours, how are you feeling?"

"Like I'm sea sick only times a million." Chapel marked something off on her data pad.

"I'll see if I can get you another hypospray."

"That'd be great. Thanks." Chapel put her pad away with the promise of being right back. Maddy looked at the sheets on her bed. She always wondered, when she watched the show, if the sheets would be incredible soft or unbearably itchy. They were itchy. She played with the fabric between her fingers; she had really been expecting to wake up in her own bed, everything just being a crazy dream. She looked over at Lia, who was rubbing her eyes with a frown. Just then, Nurse Chapel came back into the room followed by McCoy.

"Do you have any contact solution?" Both of them stared at Lia in confusion. She pointed to her eyes.

"I left my contacts in too long and now they're dry, oh, do you have a case I could borrow too?" McCoy looked at her in disbelief.

"Contact lenses? You've got to be kidding me, those things are outdated. Follow me, I'll fix your vision, no contacts required." Lia looked exited. Maddy raised her hand.

"I wear them too." He shook his head.

"Alright, come on." Maddy was about to follow him when she paused. The Enterprise was always attacked. What happened if it was attacked while McCoy was lasering her eyes? She'd be blind or dead! McCoy sat Lia in a chair, who was behaving like a kid on Christmas waiting to open her gifts. McCoy went about the med-bay preparing the equipment needed. Maddy cleared her throat to get his attention.

"Uh…I'll just take the contact solution. I'm good on the eye surgery. But thank you for the offer, it was very nice of you. I'll just be on my way now." She started backing out of the room before McCoy could stop her. She went back to her bed where another nurse was checking some readings.

"Excuse me, but could I please get some contact solution?" The nurse looked at her strangely, but nodded and left the room. She sat down on her bed and sighed. This was like a dream come true, but how long would it last? They couldn't stay here, those two Yeomen needed to come back, well, maybe. On the other hand, there might not be a way back. The nurse re-entered the room and handed her a small bottle, which she promptly opened and squirted into her eyes. She blinked and smiled.

"That's much better, thanks." The nurse left the room and Lia bounced back in, a smiling McCoy behind her.

"I can see!"

"You're done already? What about the protective sunglasses or not being able to open your eyes for hours after the surgery?"

"Don't need it, Bones just waved a thingy in front of me and now I can see." Maddy narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

"That was it?"

"Yeah."

"No lasers or the overhanging threat of blindness?"

"Nope." Maddy turned her attention to McCoy.

"I'd like better eyes now too please." He laughed.

"I see you have a healthy fear of technology." Maddy nodded her head, and McCoy laughed. "Don't worry, this is perfectly safe. Take your contacts out, you won't feel anything." McCoy waved a device over her eyes for a few minutes. Once he was done it was as if a film had been lifted from her eyes.

"Wow." She breathed, and McCoy smiled.

"You two slept for a long time, I'm going to have something made up, it's about lunch now." She nodded and they went through a door to see Chapel injecting Lia with a hypospray. She sighed.

"Thanks." Maddy nodded to McCoy as he walked over to a replicator.

"We're both vegetarians." He turned around as she came up behind him, staring at the replicator in awe. "Can you explain how that works? I always wondered." McCoy stared at her like she'd just grown another head.

"You always wondered? You haven't eaten since you've been here how can you know about the replicator?" Maddy cussed under her breath. She just made a huge mistake.

"Uh…I have one back home?" McCoy gave her a disbelieving look. "Um…yeah…so, um Lia and I should probably talk to you and Kirk and Spock and you know Scotty would be good to have around as well." He looked at her strangely but went over and pressed a button on the wall.

"Kirk? McCoy, they're up and about. And they want to talk to you, me, Spock, and Scotty." There was a pause.

"We'll be right down." He nodded and turned to see several glasses appear in the replicator, both girls standing over it staring at it with awe.

"Wow, it can make pumpkin juice!"

"Pumpkin juice? What the heck is pumpkin juice?" Maddy handed him her glass.

"Want some?" McCoy sniffed it and took a hesitant sip.

"Maddy, get over here it can make cheesecake too."

"No way!" Once her back was turned McCoy dumped the pumpkin juice out. These girls certainly were weird. Pumpkin juice. He shook his head and turned to see the door slide open to reveal Kirk, Spock, and Scotty. Kirk looked around the room, his eyes settling on the two women wearing the female security uniforms standing in front of the replicator. He cleared his throat.

"I believe we need to talk."

Several minutes later saw everyone seated in a conference room, Lia and Maddy uncomfortable with what they were about to reveal. Lia looked at Maddy then took a breath.

"As you already know, we're from the past." Kirk and Spock looked at each other, the former frowning. "But you should also know that we are not from _your_ past." Spock spoke up.

"How can you know that for certain?" She tried looking him in the eye, but found his gaze to be too penetrating, and instead looked over his shoulder.

"Because we know you. All of you." They looked at each other in alarm. Kirk crossed his arms.

"How is that possible? If what you say is true, you would possess knowledge of a future that is not your own." Lia looked nervously at Maddy.

"It's cause' you were on TV." They looked even more confused. She sighed. "Look, I don't know how it's possible, but there was a TV show on in the 1960's in our time called Star Trek, and it was about the five year mission of the U.S.S. Enterprise." Maddy went on.

"The pilot was about Pike but after that it featured you, Captain. It only lasted three seasons, as the ratings were low, and it didn't become a cultural phenomenon until it hit syndication. I don't know how this happened but you're from the future that's our past." Kirk leaned back in his chair.

"How do we know we can believe you?" Maddy rung her hands, wishing Lia would jump in at any moment to help her explain.

"You were born in Iowa. Spock's half human, and McCoy has a daughter. And Scotty, this is the first ship where you've been chief engineer. Sulu wants to be a pirate, Chekov thinks everything is a Russian invention, and Uhura speaks Swahili. If I knew what year it was I'd tell you more, but I don't and I don't want to mess up and tell you something that hasn't happened yet." Maddy looked down, not wanting to see their reactions yet. For a moment, no one spoke, until Spock broke the silence.

"What you are saying, then, is that you are from another world that somehow has knowledge of ours."

"Well, someone did anyway. The creator of Star Trek might've had some knowledge of your world, though I'm not sure how, and he used it to make the show." Kirk steepled his hands.

"And what year was it when you were beamed here?"

"2010." Kirk turned to Scotty.

"Scotty, any luck in duplicating the effects of the beam?" Scotty shook his head.

"Not yet Captain, it was a real freak accident, it was." Kirk turned back to Maddy and Lia.

"You may have knowledge of our future. Until we find a way to switch you and my crewman back to your respective times, I must ask you not to speak of this to anyone." They both nodded.

"You mean if we can get back." Kirk looked Lia in the eye.

"We'll do our best."

An hour later saw Chapel getting Maddy and Lia settled into temporary quarters. After complaining about their clothes, she had gotten Lia the proper size dress, not to mention clean underclothes. Maddy, however, was not so easily appeased.

"I would like some jeans please." Chapel looked confused.

"I'm afraid I'm unfamiliar with those. Would you like to try searching for them in the database?" Maddy scrolled through the options in the replicator and came up with zilch. In the end she settled with opaque leggings under her dress, but soon forgot about their lack of jeans when Chapel got them boots that actually fit.

"Thank god, my feet were killing me." Chapel smiled as they walked down the corridor. She paused next to a console and pushed a button. The doors slid open to reveal a darkly lit room with the worst decor Lia had ever seen. The room was a mix of orange sheets, purple lights reflected on the wall, and metal mesh separating the different parts of the room. There was one part of the room with what she supposed was a couch and a pair of chairs, although they were shaped differently than what she was used to. The other part of the room had two twin beds and a desk, with what she hoped was a food replicator next to it.

"This is all we have available right now, will you need anything else?" They looked at each other.

"I don't think so." Chapel nodded.

"I've been informed that the Captain wants the two of you to attend dinner with him and the other higher ranking officers, I'll come by later to help you prepare." Lia gave her a grateful look.

"Thank you, we don't know what's appropriate here yet." Chapel nodded and left the room. Maddy scoped out the room, opening the draws, playing with the lights, and opening all the doors.

"Hey, we've got a shower. Cool!" Lia sat down on her bed and crossed her arms.

"So….what exactly do we do now?" Maddy pushed a button and the door to the shower slid shut.

"Well, we were already on vacation; this just makes it an even more awesome vacation!" Lia stared at her. "Okay fine, I'm not sure. Not mess up the timeline I guess, but besides that, I say we have fun. This is the chance of a lifetime! I know I'm going to take advantage of it." Lia nodded.

"I guess, I'm just concerned that the two women sent down in our place might mess up _our_ timeline." Maddy paused, she hadn't thought of that.

"Well if they happen to introduce some new technology or something into our world, maybe we can do damage control if we get back." Lia mouth if to herself silently.

"If we can't get back….." Maddy nodded.

"Yeah, I'm not sure. They'll find something for us to do, right? I mean, they'd have to." Lia nodded.

"Right, we'll just have to take this one step at a time." She frowned and lay back on the bed, thinking about their situation and how this could upset the space-time continuum. Maddy lay thinking about how best to seduce McCoy. She got up and looked around at the lamps.

"Do you think this would be best for soft lighting?" She posed in front of the lamp. Lia snorted.

"You look ridiculous." Maddy slumped.

"Ah."

"Why do you want soft lighting anyway?"

"In every episode there's a chick and soft lighting surrounds them and there's a close up of her face and that's how you know she's a love interest. So I need strategic soft lighting."

"That's stupid."

"Oh no it's not! You've already had a soft lighting moment." Lia sat up on the bed and looked startled.

"No, I haven't."

"Yes, you have, you had it when Kirk entered the transporter room and looked at you. Obviously you're going to be his love interest. Just wait, before this is over you'll end up in his bed." Lia looked alarmed.

"No, I won't!"

"Oh yeah, it's gonna happen, soft lighting is never wrong."

"If I end up sleeping with anyone it's going to be Spock." Maddy snorted.

"Good luck with that, I've seen this happen before." Lia sat back.

"He won't, we're from the past, so Kirk won't risk getting involved with me." Maddy laughed.

"Ha! Shows how little you know. And that means Spock would be likely to do that too."

"I'm not going to seduce Spock, I just want to be his friend. He's hard to get to know, but that would be nice." She looked off in the distance and Maddy shook her head.

"You're still going to end up in Kirk's pants." Lia threw a pillow at Maddy's head.

"Shut up."

Back in the past of another dimension…

Janis Rand and Tonia Barrows were not doing well. This was an unfamiliar San Francisco to them, and they had no idea how they got there. The only clue they had was a primitive camera, handed to them by an old man who promptly walked away. There was a picture of them phasing into the area, lighting striking the background. Barrows had some familiarity with primitive technology, and managed to access the memory card and view the other pictures. Looking at the small screen, they saw two young women in the clothes they themselves were now wearing, posing in front of the Piers, the Golden Gate bridge, and on a boat. They looked at each other.

"There must have been a malfunction with the transporter, look, we're wearing their clothes!" Rand nodded.

"Meaning they're now on the Enterprise in ours!" They looked at each other.

"We have to stay here, they'll figure out what happened and come get us." They sat on a bench next to the sidewalk and looked around.

"How long do you think it will take for them to fix the transporter?" Rand rested her elbows on her knees.

"I don't know, but I hope it's soon." She looked over and saw Barrows looking through the purse she appeared with. "What are you doing?"

"We might as well know who we replaced here." She rummaged through the purse, ignoring the various make up and other knick-knacks. She opened the wallet she found, and pulled out a primitive form of money. Rand looked over her shoulder.

"We can't use that." Barrows sighed.

"I don't think we have much of an option right now." She continued looking through the wallet, examining a license and other various cards. She pulled out one and smiled, she recognized it from her old earth history. She showed the card to Rand; it was an old key used for hotels. "At least we have a place to stay for the night."

Back to the Future….

McCoy had advised Chapel to help the two displaced women fit in on the ship while they were there. Though she knew they were from the past, she did not know that they were from another dimension that had knowledge of theirs. Kirk had decided it would be dangerous if anyone found out they had knowledge of the future, and besides he, Spock, Scotty, and McCoy, only Chapel knew that they were from the past. To anyone else, they were new ensigns that were just transferred to the Enterprise. Chapel was to school the girls on the etiquette aboard the ship, as well as cultural changes they needed to be aware of to keep up with the times. He was about to leave the sick-bay, when he caught a glance of himself on the metal panel near the door. Did he look that disheveled? Better run a brush through his hair before dinner, he didn't want to make a bad impression.

'_Come on old man, what are you thinking? Pretty young things like them wouldn't be interesting in a man your age!' _But he shook his head and ran a comb through his hair nonetheless. Nothing wrong with dreaming, after all.

At the same time one deck down, Chapel had Lia sitting on her bed, a bobby pin in one hand, and a fistful of Lia's hair in the other. Lia herself looked slightly despondent. She didn't like their hairstyles, she just wanted to wear hers down like always. But Chapel had taken one look at her and declared it would be 'awful to let that beautiful hair just lie flat like that.' So there Lia was, her hair being wound on her head, with the rest spilling over her shoulder. She had taken one look at Maddy's short layered hair and declared it 'unmanageable,' though she did hand her an odd tube and tell her to put on her face.

"I don't like wearing that much make up." Lia nodded, the women here were way too heavy handed with their eyeshadow. Not to mention their blush.

"Same." Chapel sighed.

"Alright, you should get going now. Everyone will be waiting for you."

"Okay." Lia started to follow Chapel out of the room, but was held back by Maddy.

"Can you give us a sec, Christine?" Chapel nodded and waited outside, while Maddy turned to Lia and handed her a flashlight.

"I need you to shine this on me whenever McCoy looks at me. I'd give you a candle but that would look too suspicious." Lia looked incredulously at the flashlight in her hand.

"Really?" Maddy nodded exuberantly.

"Soft lighting never fails! Now come on, I wanna try their funny colored cubes I've seen them eat." Lia sighed and tried to find a place for the flashlight. Where the hell did she get this thing? She discreetly tossed in under the bed when Maddy walked outside. She followed her to the elevator, where Chapel set it on the right deck.

"It will be on the right, four doors down. I've got to get back to sick-bay. Good luck." Lia smiled nervously.

"Is this really a big deal or something?" Maddy shrugged.

"Well, dinner with the senior officers is pretty important, but I thought it was just another excuse to speak with us privately about our situation." Lia nodded.

"Me too." The lift stopped and they stepped off, moving to the side as two security officers nodded to them and got on. They walked to the door and stared at the console next to it. Maddy's finger hovered over the buttons.

"Do you think it's this one?" Lia shrugged.

"Try it." She pushed it and the door slid open to reveal a small antechamber with sparse furnishings. Spock was examining a shelf with an odd metal figurine on it, while Scotty, McCoy, and Kirk stood around a table bearing a large glass decanter filled with amber liquid. The three of them were drinking it out of small glasses and laughing over a joke Scotty told. They noticed the girls and set down their glasses. Maddy leaned over and whispered to Lia.

"Quick, hit me with the soft lighting."

"I threw the flashlight away."

"You bitch." They separated and smiled as the men approached them. Kirk reached them first, his attention completely on Lia, and Maddy couldn't help the smirk that crept on her face. She loved being right.

"I trust your quarters are to your liking?"

"Um, yeah they're really nice thank you." Lia refrained from asking if she could redecorate.

"Excellent, may I escort you to dinner?" He held his arm out and she wrapped her own arm around his. He smiled and led her into a conjoining room. Scotty held his arm out for Maddy and she gave him a confused look until she realized what he wanted.

"Oh." She wrapped her arm around his and followed him into the room, where a large table set with food was waiting. He held the chair out for her, and she looked at him again, confused. She tried stepping back and letting him sit down.

"Maddy, he's holding the chair out for you." Surprise sprung into her eyes.

"Oh, my bad! No one's ever done that for me before, I had no idea what you were doing." She sat down and Scotty pushed her chair in. "Thanks." Scotty looked surprised as he sat down.

"You mean no one's ever held your chair out?" Maddy shrugged.

"No." McCoy and Scotty looked shocked.

"Don't the men in your time have any manners?"

"No." She said like it was the simplest thing the world. "Not really. One time in college this guy held a door open for me. Thought that was pretty weird." They looked at each other, aghast. McCoy set his hands on the table.

"Well, at least while you're here we can show you how ladies should be treated." Lia raised an eyebrow in defense of her time, but said nothing. Frankly, this was a throw-back to the 60's, where sexism was still rampant. Maybe she could pose that to Spock later and see how he responded.

"We've been doing some calculations, and may have found a way to connect briefly with their communicators." Lia turned and looked at Kirk, who had sat down on her right. Maddy sat on her left, next to Scotty, while McCoy and Spock sat across from them. Kirk leaned on his left arm as he addressed her.

"So you can tell them what happened." He nodded.

"And instruct them not to tamper with your timeline." Lia looked relieved.

"Good, I'm sure they're okay, I mean, we were just in a tourist area taking pictures." Kirk nodded, sitting up.

"Yes, I have faith that they will handle the situation fit their stations. For now, we must wait until we come across the right conditions to simulate the ionization that affected our equipment before." Maddy frowned.

"You mean you can't just do that now?" Spock steepled his fingers.

"Doing so this close to Earth could affect the atmosphere. It was chance before that it remained unchanged. We must wait until we are farther out of the solar system to stage another attempt." Maddy nodded, that meant they had some time, good.

"Wait, you can't call them on their communicators. We have their communicators." Lia held one up to demonstrate her point. Everyone looked slightly disappointed, save Spock, who had expected that.

"But they'd have our cell phones." Lia looked at Maddy, she forgot they'd left their cell phones.

"Do you think that would work?"

"Maybe if we plug our numbers in…" Spock cocked an eyebrow.

"Fascinating. Your theory has merit. If we use your 'numbers' as you say in loo of communicator frequencies it may work." Kirk nodded.

"Spock, work on the equations needed for that." He picked up his cup and took a drink. "After dinner of course."

"Of course Captain." He took a bite of something off his plate, and everyone started eating. To Maddy's delight, there were the colored cube things. She looked at McCoy questioningly and caught his eye. He nodded.

"Those are full of vitamins and minerals, try them, they're not bad." The girls looked at each other. Maddy shrugged and took a bite. They texture was similar to soy, but the taste she couldn't place.

"Tell us about your world, I'm rather curious about the differences of our two dimensions." Kirk looked at Lia while he was talking, but Maddy took the question.

"Well, there were no eugenics war for one. For us, the 1990's were pretty peaceful, at least for the United States. We've had no world wars after the second one, though there was the cold war with Russia, but that was mostly a propaganda war. We haven't got any farther in the space front, that's been put on hold as were going through a recession right now. We actually haven't even made it to Mars, as far as manned missions are concerned."

"We don't have exactly the same technology, but a lot of our technology is modeled after yours, such as cell phones, personal computers, automatic doors, and MP3s for starters. In fact it's been theorized that Star Trek changed the world, well you guys and the Beatles." Spock raised an eyebrow.

"So you are saying that the TV program modeled after our world actually changed your own." Maddy nodded.

"More or less."

"Fascinating." Lia chewed on a red cube, focusing on taking small bites and chewing with her mouth closed. She had to be on her best behavior here, if they saw her normally, they would likely be appalled. And she wanted to impress them, especially Spock. The problem was she didn't want to seem like she was trying to impress him. She was also trying to ignore Kirk, who was staring at her, damn.

"What was your occupation back home?" She raised her head and finished her cube.

"I was—am a student. I took some time off from school, so I'm behind in earning my degree." He nodded.

"And what was your focus?"

"Physics, actually." Kirk looked interested.

"Really, that could serve you well here, if-" She cut him off.

"If we can't get back." He gazed at her solemnly and nodded slowly.

"Yes." He said quietly. Maddy sighed, she was getting sick of the constant Kirk/Lia moments. She precariously poked one of the blue cubes.

"What flavor is this? Cause you know blue food isn't natural, so I'd like to know what I'm getting into." She poked it again and looked at McCoy, wishing she had soft lighting.

"Then what do you consider blueberries?"

"More of an indigo, actually."

"Well, blue food may not be normal on earth, but I could introduce you to several blue fruits from Rigel IV." She smiled at McCoy, that was more like it. She grabbed her glass and looked cautiously at the blue liquid. McCoy grinned.

"I suppose blue drinks are included as well?" She looked at it, then at him.

"I don't suppose you have anything that isn't…uh alien?" This got another eyebrow from Spock, and a smile from McCoy. Scotty passed her an amber decanter.

"You must try the scotch lass, it's divine." He poured her a small glass and she took it cautiously.

"I've never had scotch before, I'm more of a rum girl myself."

"Aye, that's a pity lass scotch is a drink for the gods." Maddy let a small laugh escape her.

"I'll just have to try it I guess." She took a sip and let out a breath. "That's strong, but it's really good. Is this real or synthesized?"Scotty smiled proudly at her.

"It's the real deal lass. I was saving it for a special occasion." She smiled and took another sip.

"I'm honored." Meanwhile Lia was trying to explain to Kirk and Spock the importance of jeans.

"Everybody wore them back home, the rich, the poor, men, women, kids. They're practical, durable, and come in many different styles. You have to have them here, don't you?" Kirk looked at Spock.

"They were popular in our 20th century, I'm sure we could have them replicated. They were really that popular in your world?" She nodded.

"I was wearing them when we switched. These uniforms are….different."

"I'll see what we can do. I wouldn't want you to be uncomfortable during your stay." Kirk gave her a charming smile, and she had to keep herself from melting, she didn't remember Kirk being this hot in the show. She smiled back at him, and hoped Maddy wasn't looking. She was in luck; Maddy was currently having a debate with Scotty and McCoy over which type of alcohol was better: bourbon, scotch, or rum. She added her two cents to the debate.

"I personally prefer whiskey myself." This sparked a conversation about several different alien alcohols, and promises by Scotty to gather the best and have a taste test. The girls were once again caught by surprise when Scotty and Kirk helped them from their seats. They walked toward the door and paused in the corridor.

"I will need information on your cell phones to translate the frequencies so that we can attempt to contact the Yeomen." Lia nodded.

"Alright, can I get back to you on that tomorrow?" Spock nodded.

"That will be acceptable. I bid you good night." She raised a hand as he walked the opposite direction down the hallway.

"Night." Kirk once again offered his arm and Lia took it, feeling awkward. They got into the lift and went up a deck, where McCoy got off.

"Need to check a few things in sick-bay. Good night." They waved to him and kept going. The lift stopped and Scotty and Kirk walked them to their door.

"I hope you found everything to your liking." Kirk hadn't yet released her, so Lia nodded.

"Yeah, it was great, different, but great." He nodded, smiling.

"Then I'll see you tomorrow." She nodded and he kissed her hand, never breaking eye contact. She actually felt herself blushing and had to be pulled into the room by Maddy, who had been promising Scotty they would drink with him the next day. Their door slid shut behind them and Maddy smirked.

"I told you so." Lia shook her head.

"Dammit, I underestimated his charm. That won't happen again, I'm just not used to polite, charming men." Maddy nodded.

"Well, I'll be seeing you." She marched out of the room.

"Where are you going?" Maddy paused and swiveled around on her feet. "Why I have a headache, and I'm hoping that the good doctor will be able to help me. I bid you adieu, good luck not waking up in Kirk's bed." She left for the elevator.

"Headache my ass." Lia grumbled as she went to bed, thanking Chapel silently for the toothbrush and cleanser. At least some things hadn't changed. Unfortunately, she didn't have pajamas and was going to have to sleep in her skivvies. This had her trying to find a way to lock the sliding door, the last thing she wanted was to have Kirk stroll in the next day. She failed and prayed Chapel came the next morning, she doubted Maddy would come back that night, at least, not if she had her way.

"Lights." She grinned as they all went out, leaving her in the dark. She sighed and closed her eyes.

Maddy strolled toward the sick-bay, trying to look sick. The door slid open and she peeked in to see McCoy sitting at a desk, scrolling through something on his computer. She cleared her throat and he looked up, surprised.

"Madeleine! What are you doing down here?"

"I have a headache, I was wondering if you could-?" He got up and opened a cabinet and pulled out something she didn't recognize and handed it to her. "Thank you." She sat on one of the beds and kicked her legs as she waited for McCoy to get her a glass of water for the pills. She studied the sick-bay and decided it was too plain for her taste; McCoy really needed some inspirational posters to liven up the place.

"Here you go."

"Thanks." She swallowed the pills, and played with the empty cup.

"Is there anything else you need?" She looked up startled.

"Uh, no I'm just not tired yet and Lia is already asleep so I'm just trying to kill time." McCoy hmmed.

"Has anyone shown you around the ship yet?" She shook her head.

"No, not yet." She gave him what she hoped was a shy smile. He returned her smile and held his arm out.

"Well, allow me." She smiled again and took his arm, doing a mental victory dance.

"Sounds great."

The next morning saw Maddy sleeping on the floor outside her and Li's room. After he showed her around the ship, he escorted her back to their room, and in her dreamy state, she waved him away before realizing she couldn't get in. She pushed the buttons on the console, but nothing happened. Not wanting to look stupid, she decided to camp out until Lia came out, or until someone came along and let her in, at the moment, the place was silent. So she lay down outside their room and grinned while thinking about all the flirtatious banter she exchanged with McCoy on her tour. Once he realized she was interested in listening to him, his manner changed slightly, his banter became lighter, and he became more forward with her. It was heaven.

"Madeleine."

"No." She responded and sat up blearily, squinting at the figure standing above her.

"Eh?"

"May I enquire why you are sleeping on the floor?" Spock stood above her with his arms behind his back, and his eyebrow raised. She shot up and cleared her throat.

"I couldn't get in the room, and Lia was already sleeping." Spock touched a few buttons, and the door slid open. Maddy looked disappointed.

"Aw." At that moment, a scream resounded from in the room. Spock rushed in to investigate, and found Lia tangled in her sheets half off the bed.

"Lia?" She looked up and blushed bright red and tried untangling herself before she remembered she was naked.

"Uh, good morning?" She wrapped the sheets tighter around her and fell off the bed. Spock raised an eyebrow.

"Good morning?" She stood up and tossed part of the sheet over her shoulder, creating a make-shift toga. Maddy came up from behind Spock and snorted, before bursting into laughter. Lia glared at her, then turned to Spock.

"What can I do for you?" This caused more laughter from Maddy.

"I came to hook up your computer to the library database, so that you can learn about this time." Lia nodded.

"Just in case." Spock nodded.

"Yes, it is logical to prepare for all possibilities." He was referring to the possibility that they wouldn't get back. Lia nodded and went over to the replicator and got herself a new set of clothes, before heading into the shower.

"I'll just be in here." Maddy pouted, she wanted to get in the shower first. Spock was busy with their computer console, so she went over to the food replicator to get herself some breakfast.

"Spock, what do I punch in for Frosted Flakes?" This earned another eyebrow. Maddy decided to keep a mental tally from now on.

"Frosted Flakes?"

"20th century breakfast food, endorsed by a tiger. They're grrrrrreat." She smiled and patted her stomach to prove her point. Spock's expression did not change, but she did get the impression that he was questioning her sanity. She deflated.

"Toast." She told the replicator and a plate of two buttered pieces appeared. She took them and sat on her bed, watching Spock.

"When will you know if we can attempt to transport back." He paused.

"We must wait to attempt the transport until we leave Earth's atmosphere in six days." She nodded.

"Okay." Talking to Spock was kind of boring, she finished her toast just as Lia came out of the shower, dressed with her wet hair hanging down her back. Spock stood up.

"The device next to your bed can now access the library, and any information you would like about our time is now available to you." He nodded to them and left the room. Lia stretched out a hand as the door shut behind him. Maddy went over to the replicator and got herself a new set of clothes.

"Looks like you got your work cut out for you." She disappeared into the shower and Lia sighed and got herself a brush from the replicator. Damn that thing was convenient. She combed the tangles out of her hair and reached for the little kit Chapel left in the room. She put on some mascara and sat down on the bed and moved the little computer monitor toward her. She brought up the index and began reading the history of the Federation. Maddy came out of the bathroom after her shower and sat down next to Lia with a cup of coffee.

"So I gotta ask, what was that scream about?" Lia remained silent. "Come on, it can't be that bad."

"No, you're going to make fun of me."

"Well yeah, but if you don't tell me I'd find something else to make fun of you for."

"…It was a sex dream."

"With who?"

"…Kirk." Maddy burst out laughing and couldn't stop for the next several minutes.

"Shut up! It was awful." Maddy tried to calm her laughter and was able to ask why before she started laughing again.

"He wined and dined me, and I don't wanna sleep with him!" Maddy was laughing so hard she couldn't breathe. "You're a horrible person." She finally calmed down enough to form actual words.

"That is the greatest thing I have ever heard, in the history of ever." Lia glowered at her, and Maddy was tempted to pat her on the head. "Awe it's okay, it was only a dream. You're not gonna end up in his pants for another week at best."

"I'm not going to end up in his pants at all." She crossed her arms, then went back to reading.

"Aren't you gonna ask what I was doing last night?" Lia looked at her lowly.

"I think I already know." Maddy flopped on her bed.

"Nah, nothing like that. He's a gentleman, he gave me a tour of the ship."

"I want a tour too!" Maddy grinned.

"I'm sure a certain captain would be happy to give you one." Lia pouted and continued reading. Maddy looked around the room, and suddenly became very bored with it.

"Let's go meet Chekov and Sulu!" Lia looked up.

"Huh?" Maddy pulled her off the bed.

"It's my turn to give you the tour, we can go to the bridge and meet everyone, oooh I'm so excited!" Maddy bounced out the door, Lia following her more leisurely. Kirk was going to be up there. She sighed and prayed her dream didn't come true.


	3. The Pirate and the Russian

A/N: Thank you to Kitty243 and skiing Pelican and everyone else who reviewed, and to Kitty243, yes eventually there will be a plot. We just love adding a bit of humor first. Thanks everyone and keep those reviews coming.

The Pirate and the Russian

"They're digital, using a cellular network for full duplex two-way radio telecommunications." They had gone to the bridge, where Lia had gone straight to Spock at his station. She began telling him about their cell phones, in case they were different than the ones they had here. The first time her parents bought her a cell phone, she tried to take it apart. She got a scolding, and contented herself on reading about how they worked instead. Maddy, meanwhile, pranced about happily. The bridge was mostly empty because they were simply in orbit around Earth, but she spotted Chekov and headed straight for him. Kirk didn't have time to greet either of them, as they ignored him and instead focused on Spock and Chekov.

"Hello!" Maddy smiled and waved as she sat next to Chekov.

"Hallo." He answered her uncertainly as she busied herself examining the controls. She swiveled her chair around and beamed at him.

"I'm Maddy, I'm new here, and I love your accent." She held her hand out and waited for him to shake it; he did so hesitantly before returning her smile, albeit not as exuberantly.

"Pavel Chekov." Kirk cleared his throat.

"Maddy is an ensign that just transferred here, right out of the academy." Chekov nodded.

"Ahh, I see, you are still green." She shrugged.

"Whatever, can I fly the ship now?" Kirk sat up straight.

"Ensign! Mind your place." Kirk gave her a look that said 'stop acting like an idiot, I can't explain that.' She sighed.

"Fine, you though, I'll be seeing more of you." She pointed at Chekov, who looked confused, before looking over at Lia, who was still talking to Spock. No point in interrupting her when she was talking to Spock, she'd get the tar beat out of her. She sighed and momentarily thought about telling Kirk something that would help him seduce Lia, but decided against it. She was still mad at him for not letting Chekov teach her how to pilot the Enterprise. She walked into the lift and punched a random button, intent on exploring wherever it took her.

Lia was happily explaining all about cell phones, and couldn't help a satisfied smirk that graced her lips when she gave Spock her number. _Take that fan-girls. _ Yes, she was certainly pleased with herself. Now if only Kirk would stop staring down her neck.

"Interesting, thank you ensign, I will inform you of my findings." That was an obvious dismissal, so Lia turned around and made to leave the bridge. She accidently caught Kirk's eye and he inclined his head.

"Ensign." He said in a low voice. She paused, and kept going.

"Captain." She acknowledged quietly, before stepping in the lift. The doors closed and she sighed. That was close.

"Deck 4." She decided to head back to their room and keep reading about this world. She didn't know near as much as Maddy after all, and she didn't want to seem unintelligent to Spock. Not to mention her space-sickness still hadn't completely left her. She entered their room and sat down on her bed and turned on the computer and sat back, absorbing the words on the screen.

Maddy was lost. She knew this would happen, she knew from the first moment she watched the show, she would get lost in the Enterprise. And she was right. She leaned against the wall, banging her head against it. This was no good, she was lost and bored in the Enterprise. Starfleet should equip ships with maps that showed where you were, like the mall.

"That would be really useful." At that moment, she heard a familiar voice from down the hall. She headed toward it to find the transporter room. Several people had just beamed aboard, one of them being Sulu. She grinned.

"Hello!" He looked behind him, confused, before addressing her.

"Hello, uh….." She stuck out her hand.

"Maddy, I just got transferred here." It was then she realized her error. Sulu had no idea why she just came up to him and started chatting him up, so naturally he would assume it was because she was interested in him. Not what she was aiming for.

"Maddy." He smirked at her, and she gave him an uneasy smile. "Are you beaming down as well?" She was excited by the prospect, but remembered she wasn't allowed on Earth for the time being.

"Oh no. I was just transferred up here, I don't have any shore leave scheduled for a while. I was just curious about the ship, I've never been on a starship before." She followed Sulu through the corridors and to the lift.

"Then would you like to join me in the rec room? I had a card game planned with some friends." Maddy's eyes brightened. She could meet more people! And she could actually play cards!

"Alright." She wondered if Texas Hold Em' was still the standard poker game. They walked into the rec room and sat down at a table where several red shirts, and science officer were sitting. The science officer was a woman with hair piled so high on her head, it was a wonder it was standing on its own. They sat down and one of the red shirts started shuffling a set of cards.

"This is Maddy, she just came aboard." Sulu introduced her, and she waved uncertainly.

"Nice to meet you, say Sulu, when's Chekov get off duty?" Sulu looked at the wall, where a twenty four hour digital clock hung.

"In half an hour, we can deal him in when he gets here." Sulu sat back and put an arm around Maddy's shoulders. She really hoped McCoy didn't walk in, darn her ignorance. Suddenly she had an idea.

"Have him stop on deck four, I've got a friend that's new on board as well, I'm sure she'd love to join us." If she had to go down, Lia was going down with her.

McCoy was studying the read out of Lia and Maddy's medical scans. They were troublesome to say the least. They had a slew of health problems, such as asthma and chronic appendicitis. People didn't even have appendixes anymore! He was going to have to fix them, before something bad happened and one of them dropped dead. But something about the scans was more troubling, besides the serious health problems, nothing else showed up. The read outs were fuzzy, incomplete. Only major health problems showed through the static the scan produced, he would have to do another, on both of them. He hit the comm. on the wall.

"Jim, report to sick bay when you have time."

"I'm not due for a physical for another four weeks Bones." McCoy sighed.

"It's about our new arrivals." There was a pause.

"All right, Kirk out." McCoy sat down at his computer, they weren't in any immediate danger, but he'd have them come to sick bay later and get this sorted out.

Meanwhile, Lia was very surprised when the door chime suddenly went off while she was reading about the various forms of interstellar travel. She walked to the door, fearing it could be Kirk. She was relieved when a fidgeting Chekov was revealed instead.

"Hallo, your friend vanted me to escort you to zee rec room, zey are playing a game of cards I believe." Lia nodded and left with Chekov, scanning the hall both ways looking for Kirk, before following Chekov to the rec room.

"Sounds good." They entered the rec room and saw Maddy with a visor on her head, dealing cards.

"Alright boys and girls the name of the game's Texas-Hold-Em, aces high." She did a card trick and included Chekov and Lia in the game when they sat down. She kept her arms moving to avoid Sulu putting his arms around her.

"Lia, so good of you to join us. We're playing poker want to join us for a friendly game?" She smirked.

"Sounds fantastic." She sat to the left of Maddy, with Chekov sitting next to her. She didn't notice the look Sulu gave Chekov, but Maddy did. Hmmm, they were in this together now. After explaining Texas-Hold-Em, which apparently was considered old school here, they looked at their cards. Lia tapped her finger once on the table and Maddy gave a little nod. Lia had an ace. As she flipped over the other cards, two more aces just…happened to appear. Needless to say, Lia won the hand with three of a kind. Every time after that when either of them was the dealer, the other always won the hand. Luckily, this went unnoticed. An hour later saw the two of them with a hefty winning of credits, and one of the red shirts they were playing left the game after losing all of his. Maddy had become more uncomfortable as Chekov started putting the moves on Lia as well, him and Sulu obviously double-teaming the two girls. Maddy and Lia had seen this before, when the two of them went to bars and were approached by a pair of friends. Only Maddy noticed, however, as Lia was rather dense when it came to her own love life. So when Chekov suggested leaving the rec room for a stroll up to deck five where his room happened to be, she didn't see any problem with this. Maddy did.

"Oh no that won't work, we've got, um, stuff to do. Yeah, really important stuff. So thank you for a wonderful time, we best be off. We have to cash in our winnings before we do that stuff we're supposed to do. Um, yeah." Lia just seemed confused.

"What stuff? We have the day off." Maddy groaned and hit her head on the table. Lia was impossible, she could be waving a flag that says 'you're flirting,' and she wouldn't notice. Lia just thought she was being nice.

"Vell then, ve'll just be off." He escorted Lia out, his hand on the small of her back. Maddy groaned again and banged her head against the table. Not only was Lia about to be seduced by a Russian, she was left alone with Sulu, who seemed to take great pleasure in consoling her.

Lia was slightly confused. After they had left the rec room, Chekov's hand had started moving from her back, downward. He was walking uncomfortably close to her, and was telling her about some famous Russian who had done some famous thing, when his hand moved down and grabbed her ass. She jumped.

"Oh no! We do have that important thing to do! Maddy!" For Sulu and Maddy themselves had just exited the rec room, Maddy looking increasingly frustrated. She looked up in surprise when Lia suddenly appeared in front of her, waving her arms. Maddy caught on. Sulu looked confused.

"What's wrong?" Lia grabbed Maddy's arm and began running down the hallway.

"Our house is on fire, we have to go!" And they raced around a curve in the hallway, leaving a bewildered Sulu and Chekov behind them.

"Their house is on fire?"

"You know fire vas a Russian inwention."

The girls didn't stop running until they made it to the elevator, once in Lia started freaking out and waving her arms frantically, not able to form words.

"Yes, I know they were hitting on us." Lia kept waving her arms, making horrified expressions.

"I tried to warn you." Lia was finally able to make frantic squeak.

"Yes, he was trying to get in your pants." She collapsed against the railing, still making helpless gestures.

"Yes, it would have been horrible." Lia's face contorted in confusion and she pointed to her side, where Spock was standing.

"Yes, he's been here the whole time." She looked despondent.

"I didn't want to say anything." Indeed, Spock had been in the lift the entire time they had been talking.

"Fascinating, you were able to understand everything she conveyed to you by her hand gestures alone. Is this a normal method of communication in your world?" Maddy shook her head.

"No, just Lia's." The lift stopped and Lia made to run to her room in humiliation, when Spock grabbed her arm.

"I was actually on my way to retrieve you when you happened upon me here. Doctor McCoy wished for the two of you to undergo further scans in the sick bay." Lia slumped. Great, she couldn't go sulk in their room. Maddy, however, perked up.

"Lead on!" Spock stared at her as the lift opened on another deck, and exited the lift. They followed him to the sick bay, where Kirk and McCoy were staring intently at a computer screen. They stood when they entered and McCoy promptly took out his scanning device and began to wave it first in front of Maddy, then Lia. He frowned and shook his head.

"The same thing Jim, just like I was saying!" Spock took out a tricorder and adjusted the settings. Both his eyebrows shot up at the readings.

"It seems the two of you are surrounded by large amounts of tachyon particles, which are disrupting Doctor McCoy's scans." Lia frowned.

"That makes sense, we did travel through time and space." Spock nodded.

"However, after your physical stabilization, the particles should have dispersed." Kirk crossed his arms and stared at the two girls.

"What does it mean Spock? Will it harm them?" Spock shook his head.

"No Captain, however, the tachyons may disrupt more than Doctor McCoy's equipment. We must adjust our own scanning equipment, less the tachyons disrupt that as well." Kirk nodded.

"And will this affect the transporter switch, when we attempt it?" Spock crossed his arms.

"There is that possibility, Captain." Kirk looked pensive for a moment, then nodded.

"Alright, Mr. Spock, keep working on this." Spock nodded and left, he then turned around to Lia and was about to reach her when McCoy interrupted him.

"I'd like to run a few more scans on them Jim." Lia sighed in relief, she had enough of being hit on for the day. She went and sat down as McCoy adjusted his equipment and began scanning her again. His expression grew horrified.

"Good god woman!" Everyone looked startled.

"What?" McCoy shook his head.

"I forget just how much people had to live with in your time, I'm amazed you're not dead!" Kirk looked concerned but Lia just shrugged.

"I'm tough."

"Tough or not, I'm healing you, no one should have to live with all your ailments." Though Kirk was curious, he didn't ask just what Bones was referring to. It would be a breach of doctor-patient confidentiality. He lingered, but Bones noticed and shooed him out.

"I'll be working on her for awhile, check in later when I'm done."

Skip to the past…

"The end is near! Repent sisters the apocalypse is upon us!" Barrows looked at the odd homeless man holding a sign.

"No it isn't." The man seemed excited to have an audience, however unbelieving.

"The signs have come to pass! The planets are aligning! All will end."

"The planets never aline perfectly."

"Doom is coming!"

"When?"

"By 2012 all will be lost!" She shook her head.

"No, it won't." This man was insane, what scientific proof did he have that the world was going to end? Barrows and Rand looked at each other. They had figured that somehow they had traveled through time, though it was a surprise to them that they had traveled this far back. Barrows suddenly was struck by a bit of mischief.

"It's 2013 you have to worry about, that's when everything will go to hell." The man stared at her a moment, before continuing on his way, yelling at anyone too close. Rand got a case of the giggles.

"You shouldn't have done that!" Barrows shrugged.

"What, it's not like it's going to matter. Besides, people were still suspicious in this time, I remember reading once that the number thirteen was considered unlucky." Rand frowned.

"Isn't it the thirteenth today?" Barrows paused.

"You know, I think it is! Or at least it was, or will be." Rand sighed and rested her head in her hands.

"They better hurry up. I don't think I can take much more of this time."

To the future…

"And then when I was four I died on the operating table for two minutes, and then again when I was seven." McCoy was staring at Lia in horror, when he asked her about her medical history he never expected anything like this. She was a ticking time bomb! He already fixed her asthma, reversed some skin damage from the sun, and removed her appendix and she still had things wrong with her!

"I'm confining you to sick bay until I'm convinced you're not going to die anytime soon." Lia sighed and sat back.

"That other time was suffocation from my asthma you know, and you fixed that, so I'm fine." McCoy was not convinced, and set all the scanners up to detect even the slightest irregularity, after adjusting to allow for her tachyon emission. He was almost afraid to leave the room. She, however, just pulled the computer attached to her bed over to her and began to read, looking bored. Without taking his eyes off her, he pulled Chapel away from the screen she was examining and pointed at Lia.

"Watch her like a hawk." He left the room and went into the adjoining room where Maddy was waiting.

"What's up doc?" He had the feeling he was missing out on some joke and if that smile was any indication he was.

"I suppose that's an archaic saying from your time?" Maddy sat down at the seat across from his at his desk.

"Yeah, what's up with Lia?" McCoy ran a hand over his face.

"Everything, as far as I can tell. Tell me, does she often have medical emergencies?" Maddy shook her head.

"Naw, not anymore. That was just when she was younger, don't worry about it." He nodded.

"I hope you're right. I'm at least happy to see that you are fit as a fiddle." Maddy nodded.

"No playing doctor for me then eh?" She said flirtatiously, and he smiled.

"Oh I don't know, what's bothering you?"

"Oh well my neck's been bothering me. I might be in need of some physical therapy." She suggested.

"Oh, I can think of a few things that might help."

The following morning found Lia and Maddy once again in the sick bay, which had become their hang out of sorts. McCoy had finally decided Lia wasn't going die anytime soon, and so she just went back to reading, which was all she had done the night before. Spock had come back down to question them on their knowledge of their world.

"How far into the future does your knowledge extend?" Lia frowned.

"Around one hundred years, I think." Maddy nodded, that was about when Next Generation took place. Spock's eyebrows shot up.

"Interesting." But Lia wasn't done.

"I don't think it'll be that accurate though. Our presence here has changed this timeline, events that we remember from the show may never happen now, or they may happen differently." Spock nodded.

"Indeed."

"Could you tell me the year please?" Spock turned to Maddy.

"It is 2269." Maddy looked at Lia.

"That's when the show was cancelled. Meaning the rest of the five year mission is a mystery to us. But we do have knowledge of what happened after that." Spock crossed his arms.

"Fascinating."

"Of course there was the animated series, but there's debate over whether that was cannon or not. So we may or may not know what happens, but other than that I got no clue till the 2270s."

"Animated?"

"You guys became a Saturday morning cartoon." That earned her another eyebrow.

"A cartoon?"

"Yeah, no worries it might not happen." She patted his shoulder and grinned at him. She was rewarded with an eyebrow and a nasty look from Lia. She removed her hand from Spock before Lia decided to remove it for her.

"Oh Spock I have one more question, just so I know where we are. What was the last major event that took place?"

"Aside from a tachyon malfunction in the transporter?"

"Yes, aside from that." Spock paused for a moment.

"The captain's body was switched with that of Janice Lester." Maddy repressed a laugh. She always thought that was one of the odder episodes.

"That's the last episode of the series. We don't know anything after that, which is a relief to know we won't mess up your time line…much."

"Fortunate." Lia fiddled with the computer, she wasn't like Maddy, she couldn't just vacation on the Enterprise, she wanted something to do or else she would go crazy.

"Spock? Is there something we can do? Some post we could be given? Anything?"

"It is doubtful you have the skills and knowledge required for any post here."

"Even as a front? We need one you know, or people will start noticing that the new ensigns never seem to do anything." Spock nodded.

"That is true."

"What about history? Our ancient history is almost the same as yours."

"Unlikely. We have several historians onboard, we do not have any need for more."

"It's okay I'll be head of robotics and Lia can be my first lieutenant."

"There is no robotics department."

"Good, I'll get it started."

"That will be unnecessary." Maddy looked downcast. She was going to model all her robots after transformers.

"We do have need of more security personnel."

"NO!" Spock's eyebrows shot up at their vehement refusal.

"I think that I'll just keep studying physics, then I can join the science department."

"Yeah, and I'll do biology, no need to put us in security, heh." Spock watched as the two of them fidgeted. Why were they so wary of being security personnel?

"Very well, I suggest you then don the appropriate uniforms." They let out respective sighs of relief, the sooner they got out of red uniforms the sooner they'd be out of danger.

Thirty minutes later the girls were happily parading around their room regaling in the fact that they were safe from harm for the time being.

"Look who's not gonna die any time soon!"

"Whoo! No red shirt dance party!" They began dancing in their blue dresses, convinced they were now safe from being killed on landing parties, if they ever went on any, that is.

"Well, I think it's time I pay the good doctor a visit." Lia stopped dancing.

"Again? Weren't you with him last night?" Maddy nodded.

"Yeah, he gave me a neck massage. It was the most amazing thing ever." She got a dreamy look on her face.

"But I've been playing hard to get, since girls here do that, that's what he expects." Lia gave her an odd look.

"You're playing that game? You?" Maddy shrugged helplessly.

"What else am I going to do? This is like our 1960's, culturally. I've seen the show, they don't like women making the first move. It may have been revolutionary, but the sexism was still there. I mean really aside from Uhura and Chapel the female crewmembers didn't have personalities, and were weak little things."

"So you're saying sexism is okay so long as it gets you your man?"

"I'm not saying I'm going to stay at home and do his cooking. I'm letting him make the first move; because I've been I love with him since I was little and used to watch the show with my dad. He was always my favorite; I didn't care as much about the other series because he wasn't part of them. I was jealous of his chicks, I love his banter, his high moral standards, and his sarcastic nature and… yeah, I'm being stupid, and letting him run the show." Suddenly she didn't feel like celebrating anymore.

"As long as it's what you want." Maddy nodded.

"Yeah, we'll see." Lia sat back and continued reading. She'd let Maddy do what she wanted with Bones, it's not like she would get another chance. Meanwhile, she was just getting into advanced particle physics, and needed to concentrate. Even if they didn't stay here, she could definitely take some of this knowledge back home with her.

Meanwhile, on the bridge, Spock had been relaying the information he gained from the girls to Kirk and Scotty, careful to keep his voice down.

"One hundred years Captain! That's a mighty long time." Kirk nodded.

"Yes it is. Spock, what do you make of it?" Spock put his arms behind his back.

"They seem very concerned about keeping our timeline intact. If there is no way to return them to their own time, I do not believe they will act upon their knowledge of our future." Kirk nodded.

"Good. But even if they don't, if anyone ever found out they had knowledge of the future….." Spock nodded.

"A great liability Captain." Kirk leaned back in his chair, pensive.

"And we are the only ones that know." The men were silent for a moment.

"They have to stay with us Jim, if anyone ever found out about them…"

"Their lives would be in danger."

"We can't let anything happen to 'em Captain."

"I don't intend to Scotty, but there is the matter of Starfleet. I have to inform them about what happened to Barrows and Rand, and how do I explain two new additions that aren't supposed to exist?"

"Captain, if I may make a suggestion?"

"Of course, Spock."

"It would be illogical to inform Starfleet of our visitors unless we are certain they cannot be returned to their time. It would be desirable to return them without anyone being aware, so that the information they have not be spread, and so that it cannot be used to control the outcomes of future events."

"You're suggesting I withhold information from Starfleet."

"Only until we are sure they cannot be returned."

"Logical."

"There would be no point in informing Starfleet of a minor transporter malfunction."

"Of course not." Kirk agreed. There was a chance some at Starfleet would want the information the girls had, and that may not be the best option. They seemed to think that their future had to happen the way they saw it, and if that be the case, it must not be a bad one. But if Starfleet decided they didn't like how an event was supposed to pan out, they might try to change the course of the future, for better or worse, and Kirk had a feeling if anyone changed it, it would not end up well.

"Sulu, you have the conn."

"Aye aye Captain." Kirk left the bridge, Scotty and Spock following him.

"I'm going down to Deck 1 Captain, need to check the warp drive before we leave Earth." Kirk nodded and they dropped off Scotty before the lift began ascending again.

"Would you like me to inform them of our decision Captain?" Kirk shook his head.

"No Mr. Spock, I'll take care of it." Spock inclined his head and got off on Deck 5. Kirk went to Deck 4 and walked to their room. He pressed the door chime and waited.

Lia had just started getting into the applied dynamics of faster than light travel when the door chimed. She got up, her brain swimming with equations, and pushed the button that opened the door. Kirk was standing on the other side, his arms behind his back. She blinked.

"Captain." He nodded at her acknowledgement.

"I need to talk to you and Maddy." She let him in, feeling assured he wasn't here to flirt.

"She's not here, she left a little while ago." He nodded and walked into the room.

"Then you can tell her later." Lia sat down on the end of her bed.

"Tell her what?" He sat down next to her and looked her straight in the eye.

"We'll be leaving Earth in the next four days, and once we are out of the solar system we're going to attempt to contact the yeomen, and send you home. If neither of these work I will have to inform Starfleet of your presence."

"You haven't told Starfleet yet?"

"Well, as Mr. Spock put it, why would they be needed to be informed about a transporter malfunction?"

"But if they found out couldn't you be court marshaled?" He took her by the shoulders and lifted her chin with his hand.

"You possess knowledge that could endanger you. If anyone found out about what you know you'd be in grave peril. I'm going to do my best to keep you safe." He leaned in, and left Lia slightly baffled. He barely knew her! She barely knew him! Wow, he did work fast. She cleared her throat and looked to the side, and he sat back. Instead, he took her hand and held it in both of his. Though he was only about an inch taller than her, his hands were rather larger than her own. They were warm and calloused, and he held her hand as though she were fragile, breakable.

"Spock has told me you've been studying, and I see you're now wearing the science uniform." He looked at her in the blue uniform, and she brushed her bangs out of her face.

"Well, I posed to Mr. Spock the problem of being ensigns that never did anything, and that eventually someone would notice. So, Maddy and I changed uniforms, since we'll both be joining the science department. We didn't fit in with security and engineering." Kirk nodded.

"He said you've been through half our information on physics, it's admirable for you to prepare for the possibility that you may not be able to return to your world." She nodded and looked down.

"It's daunting, and sad." She thought briefly of her family. "But necessary. I want to earn my keep." He smiled.

"I'm sure you will."


	4. Failure to Launch

A/N: Thank you JASPERHALEFOREVER and kitty243 for the super awesome reviews, you guys win the prize for being awesome! The actual prize has yet to be determined, but don't worry you guys won it.

Failure to Launch

"You ready?" Maddy put on her boots and stood up. It had been four days, and at last they were leaving the solar system. Spock had suggested they put on the uniforms they arrived in, so they were back in ill-fitting boots, and in Lia's case, an ill-fitting dress. Luckily though, they washed the undergarments, so it wasn't that gross.

"I guess, let's go." They went to the transporter room where and Scotty and Spock were waiting for them.

"Step on to the transporter pad; we'll attempt to recreate the conditions that brought you here." They nodded and nervously stepped onto the pad and waited. Scotty signaled someone in engineering and they began to simulate the ion storm. Though to them nothing was different, Lia's hair started to stand as the transporter was charged. Spock nodded to Scotty and he pushed something on the transport console, then everything went fuzzy. Lia and Maddy saw San Francisco as if they were looking at it through a dirty window. And then they saw them. Barrows and Rand stood with wide eyes in their clothes, just as fuzzy as the rest of their surroundings. That was when everything went wrong.

"I'm losing them Mr. Spock, all of them!" Maddy and Lia were fading in and out on the transporter pad, but were not stabilizing, nor were they disappearing. Spock quickly began pressing buttons and inserted a disk into the console.

"Reverse the ionization, send this through." Scotty signaled engineering and the simulated storm was stopped. He restored the normal transport settings and Lia and Maddy finally stabilized. Everything looked weird, and everything felt weird. Lia dropped like a rock to the ground, and Maddy swayed once before following suit. Scotty ran over to them.

"We need ta get them ta sick bay!" Scotty picked up Maddy and Spock followed suit, grabbing Lia. He hit the comm. on the wall with one hand while trying to support Lia.

"McCoy here."

"Prepare the sick bay Doctor, the transfer was not successful."

When Lia woke up she could have sworn elephants had been tap dancing on her head, it hurt that much. She opened her eyes and instantly shut them again. The bright lights of the sick bay were blaring down on her. She groaned and covered her eyes with her arm.

"Turn the lights down." Almost immediately someone was by her side.

"How are you feeling?" She opened her eyes again and saw Kirk sitting by her bed. She resisted the urge to groan, she couldn't have woken up to Spock's face, no it had to be Kirk's.

"Like I got hit on the head with a ton of bricks."

"I've got something for that." She gladly took the little blue pill McCoy handed her. He stood over her, scanning her and checking her vitals. She watched him, trying to ignore the feeling of Kirk's eyes on her.

"What happened?"

"That damn transporter malfunctioned and almost killed the both of you, probably Rand and Barrows too."

"How?" Spock appeared at the end of her bed.

"The ion emissions we simulated changed the nature of the tachyons surrounding you. Unfortunately, it seems that the tachyons surrounding the yeomen were also affected, as the two of you seemed to meet halfway." Lia nodded, she remembered seeing them.

"So you mean that the tachyons were acting as a bridge between time and space, and when the nature of the tachyons surrounding Maddy and I changed, the bridge…." Spock nodded.

"Essentially. And though your bodies were not affected by the transfer when you arrived here, when the tachyons around you shifted, they stopped protecting you from the ion storm we created." McCoy kept scanning her.

"They messed up your molecules, and it took forever to adjust the settings on our scanners to see through the changed tachyons around you." Lia nodded.

"So that means…." Spock finished her sentence.

"You cannot return, another attempt would kill you. I was, however, able to send a message through before the tachyons stopped emitting to your time, hopefully the yeomen will receive my message. They will live out the rest of their lives in your world, while you….."

"Live out ours here."

"Yes." She closed her eyes again, trying not to cry. She was stuck her in a future that wasn't hers, in a place she wasn't meant to be, and that damn captain kept trying to get in her pants.

"What now?"

"We'll acquire identities for the both of you." She didn't want to ask if she could stay on the Enterprise, would she stay on the Enterprise? Where else could she go? The only people she knew and could trust were here, standing next to her.

"I'm going back to sleep." She turned on her side, her back to them and closed her eyes and willed sleep to take her. Kirk reached out to touch her.

"Jim, let her be." His hand fell to his side.

"I'll be on the bridge. Contact me if you need anything." He spoke the last part to Lia. She said nothing and heard McCoy ushering Spock and Kirk out, dimming the lights as they went. McCoy gave one last look at the monitor before the door slid shut behind him.

"Miss, can you hear me?" Janice Rand opened her eyes. A man with brown hair and a kind smile was standing over her. She sat up in alarm and the man quickly supported her.

"It's alright." But Janice was looking around wildly.

"My friend, where is she? Is she alright?" The man nodded and gestured to the bed next to hers, where Tonia Barrows was still sleeping. The room they were in was white, and she looked down at her arm to see a needle taped to her skin, hooked to a tube that connected to a bag of fluid.

"What happened?" The doctor, for she now noticed the I.D. card hanging around his neck, sat back in a chair next to her bed.

"You and your friend were found near the Japanese Gardens, someone saw the two of you writhing on the ground. We think that lightning struck next to the two of you from that storm that appeared earlier. We treated you and your friend yesterday, I am glad to see you have awoken." Janice put a hand on her head. That's right, she remembered now, they felt themselves being transported….when they saw those two girls in their uniforms….then nothing. Something must have gone wrong.

"Is she alright?"

"The both of you will be just fine." He smiled at her again, and she felt herself smiling back. He pushed a button on the wall.

"I'm Dr. Collins."

"My name is Janice." A nurse walked into the room carrying a chart.

"Thanks June, can you bring Janice here some food?" She nodded and left the room. "Our green Jell-O's the best of any hospital in the county." He winked at her and she couldn't help the blush that spread over her face.

"Hey, wake up!" Lia's eyes opened. The room was still dark, but Maddy was sitting up in the bed next to her.

"What's going on?" Lia rubbed her eyes.

"It didn't work, and if we try again we'll die." Maddy was quiet for a moment.

"Oh." She lay back down and stared at the ceiling.

"So….." Lia shrugged.

"We're stuck here, we have to stay and become official citizens, and join Starfleet or something. We can't go home." Maddy's heart throbbed for a moment, but she forced herself to think. It wouldn't be so bad, she could continue to further her relationship with Bones, and go to other planets. She could live a life of adventure with her dream man, it really wasn't so bad.

Except for the fact that everyone she knew probably thought she was dead. She would never go home for Christmas, or go camping over the 4th of July again. She would never be able see her brother's wedding or watch a baseball game with her dad. She was as good as dead in her world, and suddenly spending the rest of her life on the Enterprise didn't sound like so much fun after all.

"That really sucks." She hugged a pillow to her chest and tried to focus on anything other than the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"Spock said he managed to send a message, so the yeomen know what happened, but….." She trailed off, it would take some time getting used to thinking about this place as their new home. Home….all she knew now was the Enterprise, and it wasn't somewhere she could set down roots. She had no home here, now she was just a….space gypsy. She closed her eyes and saw Kirk's face. She believed he was sincere about wanting to help her….maybe he could help her establish a life here.

"They'll help us, I know they will." Maddy nodded, they would.

Scotty sat in the rec room nursing a glass of scotch. In all his time aboard the Enterprise he'd never felt the weight of such failure on his shoulders. He'd always been able to modify something, or think of some way to avert a catastrophe. But not today. Today he was supposed to bring four women back to their homes, and today he failed. He took another sip, willing the hollow feeling of defeat to leave him.

"Room for one more?" He looked up and saw McCoy standing in front of him, he hadn't even heard him.

"Aye, Doctor." McCoy pulled a chair out and took a glass Scotty offered him.

"Cheers." They raised their glasses and each took a slow sip of their scotch. They sat in silence for a moment before one of them felt the need to speak.

"They have nowhere to go."

"Strangers in a strange land." Bones agreed.

"They'll need identities, and ta become official citizens and Mr. Spock informed me that they were going ta join Starfleet." McCoy nodded.

"Yes, I believe Spock was planning on taking care of that himself. He decided that it would be better to tell Starfleet they were found on a colony, and to suggest a work study program for them here aboard the Enterprise." Scotty nodded.

"Aye, that would be best. We're the only ones that know their secret, they'll be safest with us." McCoy nodded.

"I agree, they'll need our help, it won't be easy for them here." Scotty nodded and took another drink of scotch.

"Aye." He raised his scotch glass. "To the lasses."

"To the girls." They sat in silence as they emptied the bottle of scotch.

McCoy returned to the sick bay in a slightly drunken state. He sat down at his desk and spun around in his chair. As he was holding his head and willing the room to stop spinning, the door slid open to reveal Maddy. She looked like she had just woken up, her hair standing up at odd angles. He stood up and staggered over to her.

"Madeleine!" He grinned at her and she squinted at his face.

"Are you drunk?" He laughed.

"No, no. I'm just looking for something I left here." She cocked an eyebrow and gave him a look that said she didn't believe him but decided not to say anything. She fidgeted slightly, uncomfortable around him. It was different being around him now that she knew she couldn't go home.

"Oh, I just wanted to see what was making that noise; I guess I'll just go then."

"You don't have to." She paused at the doorway, gave a slight nod and pulled the chair in front of McCoy's desk out.

"Okay." They were silent for a moment. She played with the hem of her skirt, avoiding eye contact.

"How are you doing?"

"I'm fine." This time it was her that received the disbelieving look.

"Are you?" She felt her eyes watering up.

"…No, no I'm not. I just lost everything I know. I lost a future I've worked toward for my entire life. I've lost a family and all my possibilities. And…I'm useless here."

"Why do you say that?"

"I'm a marine biologist, or I was going to be. How large is the need for a marine biologist on a starship? Zero? That's what I've been working for since I was five. I don't have a future here." She tried blinking away the tears. She didn't want McCoy to see her cry. "Ah shit I'm being stupid. This is a once in a life time adventure! And I'm moping around like my dog died." She stood and wiped some of the tears that escaped her away.

"I don't need to stay in the sick bay any longer, do I? The beds are hard and those sheets are awful." She laughed and moved for the door. Before she was able to leave McCoy grabbed her hand, spun her around, and kissed her. Her eyes widened in surprise. He pulled away slowly and looked her in the eye.

"I know that you feel lost and confused, but I want you to know….that you don't have to be alone." Maddy felt touched at his words, and also slightly impressed that he had the clarity to say them while drunk.

"Thank you." He wrapped his arms around her and she relaxed in his embrace, reveling in his warmth. Maybe this future wouldn't be so bad after all.

"In order for the two of you to legally join the Federation, I will need to construct documents of origin for you. I will make the information as accurate as possible, without revealing your true origins. Now, I will ask each of you to give me your personal information and any other information I find relevant. Do you understand?" Lia and Maddy nodded. They were in the antechamber connected to Spock's personal room, so that they would have privacy while he created their new identities.

"Miss Lia, I will start with you. Your full name, and date and location of birth." Spock had a datapad on the desk in front of him, ready to record their information.

"Lia Adele Acacia, July 28, 1988 in Hettinger, North Dakota, at 11:05 pm." Spock nodded.

"Accurate, good. Ethnicity?"

"German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, and English." Spock nodded.

"Doctor McCoy has your physical characteristics on file, so I will proceed to Miss Madeleine.

"Would it kill you just to call me Maddy?" He just eyed her.

"Miss Madeline, what is your date of birth?" She sighed in defeat and gave Spock her stats.

"Madeline Marie Flint, April 22, 1989, Denver, Colorado. I've got no idea what time I was born, let's say 6:18 am." Once again she received an eyebrow.

"Ethnicity?"

"American." Another eyebrow. "From the United States…I've got some Irish in me." He nodded.

"I will draw up the necessary documents. I have informed Miss Chapel that the two of you need conduct lessons in order to better assimilate yourselves to this world." Maddy and Lia looked at each other. Spock thought they needed conduct lessons? Lia nodded in defeat.

"Fine, we'll just be going now." They headed down to sick bay where Chapel was waiting for them in an empty room.

"Alright, now I've been studying cultural differences between our two times and have been able to note some behavioral differences. For instance, we do not use an excess of swear words in our society." Lia and Maddy looked slightly guilty.

"I've been trying not to swear."

"Yeah, me too." Chapel nodded.

"That's good. They are looked upon as vulgar here, it would do you well to eliminate them from your vocabulary. Next, you need to behave more….femininely." Lia crossed her arms, bewildered.

"But…we're girls." Chapel nodded.

"Yes, but that doesn't necessarily mean you act like it." Maddy got where this was going. They didn't act as worshiping of the male sex as people in this time.

"You mean we have to be simpering delicate women?" Chapel sighed in frustration.

"No, I simply mean you must be aware of your gender. For instance, look at how she's sitting." They both looked at Lia, who looked confused. "She is slouching and has her legs spread and kicked out in front of her. Why, if someone were in the right position, they could see up her dress." This had Lia sitting up quickly and crossing her legs. Chapel nodded approvingly.

"Very good. Also, you should show pride in your appearance, it shows you respect yourself. Instead of letting your hair lay flat, why not try styling it?" _'Here we go'_ thought Lia. Back on her hair, it must really bother Chapel that she just liked to wear it straight and down her back. Of course, she was the only woman aboard that she'd seen wear it that way, everyone else wore elaborate up-dos.

"And you could grow yours out a bit and try curling it." Maddy's hands went to her head. No way was she curling her hair.

"No I look like an insane poof-ball with curly hair. Besides I haven't seen anyone with curly hair here." Chapel sighed, frustrated.

"Fine. Also you're manners are lacking."

"How so?" She eyed Lia.

"I've seen you eat. It's amazing someone hasn't lost a finger." She paled slightly then decided to split the criticism.

"Maddy plays with her food."

"Hey!"

"Maddy, it's rude don't you know better?" Lia shook her head at her, looking disappointed.

"No?" Chapel was growing frustrated.

"Both of you need to work on your manners." She then had lunch brought in and instructed them on table manners, how to hold your fork, cut your food, and how to make polite dinner conversation. An hour later, they were released and instructed to return the next day. They got on the lift and headed back to their room.

"Thank goodness, I've had enough etiquette for one day. I don't think we're _that_ bad." Maddy nodded.

"Yeah, but we should probably do what she says, otherwise people will think we're weird and unladylike." Lia looked slyly at Maddy.

"Thinking of a certain someone?" Maddy kept her head down.

"Maybe. But she is right, we need to fit in and not draw attention to ourselves, and if that means doing those things, then we should." Lia nodded, that was true. She was just afraid that Kirk would get ideas. Concerned, she started studying the door again, there had to be a way to lock it.

"Maybe some sort of voice recognition lock?"

"Holy hell in a hand basket it worked!" She looked away from the door and saw Maddy prance around the room holding a pair of jeans over her head.

"Where did you get those?"

"I finally found the right molecular code for jeans off the replicator!"

"Ah! Show me." She showed Lia how to duplicate jeans and five minutes later saw the girls in jeans and tank tops trying to lock their door.

"We could tape it!"

"Where would we get the tape?"

"We could put a chair in front of it!"

"It's a sliding door."

"We could sabotage the control panel!"

"We'd get ourselves locked out."

"Fine, Lia you think of something." She studied the door for a minute.

"…Fine we'll tape it. Fire up the replicator." Maddy proudly pranced over to the replicator in her jeans and tried to find the molecular code for duct tape.

"Ah ha!" They taped the door vertically and just for good measure taped the bottom of it.

"Victory!" They high fived each other and the door chime went off. They looked at each other.

"Crap." They went over and began taking the tape off the door. The chime went off again.

"Just a minute! Damn." Lia was left with an armful of tape when Maddy finally pushed the button to open the door. Scotty was revealed with his arms behind his back on the other side. He stared.

"What are ya doing? What are ya wearing?" He exclaimed, getting a good look at them in their jeans and tank tops. Lia went over and dumped the tape down the garbage chute and Maddy invited Scotty inside.

"We were trying to find a way to lock the door." He looked at them like they were crazy.

"Why, ya just push this button here, the only people that can unlock it need authorization from command grade officers." Lia looked despairingly at Maddy. That did not solve her problem.

"Anyway, this is what we wore back home Scotty, it's the most amazing, comfortable thing in the world."

"It's true, there are songs written about jeans."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah, absolutely. We should get you a pair."

"I'm on it. Oh I'll get you a t-shirt too!" Maddy rushed over to Scotty and shoved a pair of jeans and a t-shirt saying _'Engineers do it with maximum efficiency'_ in his arms. "Put 'em on. Don't worry we won't look." They covered their eyes and waited for Scotty to change.

"Aye, these are comfortable." Lia smirked.

"Told ya so."

"Hurray jeans and t-shirts for everyone!" Scotty then pulled out a bottle of scotch, and they each poured themselves a glass.

"To you lasses, may your lives here be long and prosperous." They drank and Lia patted Scotty on the back.

"Thank you Scotty, that's very thoughtful." He nodded.

"Aye, well…I feel partly responsible for you lasses situation, and I'll do anything I can ta help you get settled here." Maddy poured them all more scotch.

"To Scotty and his scotch!"

Two hours later saw Kirk heading to deck four to check on his newest ensigns. Bones had released them to quarters that morning, and he wanted to make sure they were recovering before he turned in for the night. They were going through a difficult time, and he wanted them to know they had his help and support. He arrived at the door and pressed the door chime. He heard rustling and muffled voices before the door finally opened revealing his chief engineer out of his uniform.

"Scotty?"

"Aye, Captain." He gave a shaky salute and wavered a bit before regaining his balance.

"What are you doing in the girls' room?"

"Eh, me and the lasses…hiccup… were toasting each other's good health."

"I see, and the clothes?"

"The lasses were celebrating their new clothes and young Maddy…hiccup… thought I needed a pair of these here jeans as…hiccup…well."

"They thought you needed new clothes?"

"Aye Captain." He glanced at the phrase on his shirt and arched an eyebrow. He entered the room and Scotty wobbled over to the table where the empty scotch bottles lie. Next to it lay a bottle of whiskey they got from the replicator, there was only a swallow left. Maddy was lying half off her bed, giggling. He looked around the room, his eyes seeking out Lia, when she appeared over his shoulder.

"Are you going to find me the best price for my trip?"

"What?" He turned around and found a drunk Lia staring him in the eyes.

"Are you…" She poked him in the chest. "Going to…" She poked him again. "Find me the best deal for my trip?" She poked him in the chest after each word.

"Your trip?"

"Priceline negotiator!" She sang out him before losing her balance and falling into his chest. "I liked you in T.J. Hooker." She collapsed on the floor, taking him with her.

"I wanna go to Hawaii. Can you do better than the gnome? He test drives the rooms. Priceline negotiatooooor!" She rolled away from him and tried to grab the bottle of whiskey off the table. Kirk caught her hand.

"I think you've had enough." He set Scotty down in a chair-he had been going for one of the beds, and guided Lia to her own bed.

"I don't think so mister….you tell him Maddy!" Maddy fell off the bed. Lia nodded.

"Good." Kirk noted the scotch bottle and realized that Scotty must have finally come through on his promise to introduce them to the liquor.

"You're going to regret this in the morning." Lia shook her head.

"Nuh uh, I never get hangovers!" He sat down next to her, and sighed when Scotty got up and collapsed on Maddy's bed. Maddy herself was now passed out on the floor next to it, only Lia was still awake, though barely.

"You've got good eyes. How many STDs do you have?"

"What?"

"It's okay, McCoy can fix you like he fixed my eyes!" She grabbed him by the neck and kissed him quickly on the lips, before collapsing on her bed and closing her eyes.

"Price line negotiatooor." She sang softly as she tried pulling the blanket over her head. Kirk removed her hands from the blanket and put it over her himself.

"Your eyes are very pretty too."


	5. Life Aboard the Enterprise

A/N: Thank yous to estar9821, PassionateSoul, JASPERHALEFOREVER, and Kitty243 for the reviews. And to estar9821, your right Maddie and Lia are based on us good eye. No one's ever called us on it before, but what can I say? We love Star Trek and self inserts.

Life Aboard the Enterprise

Lia and Maddy awoke at the same time the next morning to a loud snore that had them both covering their ears. Lia looked over to see Scotty sprawled out on Maddy's bed, snoring. Maddy herself sat up on the floor and looked around in confusion.

"The hell?" All the alcohol bottles were gone, and their room had been tidied up. Lia herself did not remember getting into bed, actually, she didn't remember anything after that last shot of whiskey.

"Why's Scotty in my bed?" He let out another loud snore and rolled around on the bed, clutching the pillow to him like a teddy bear.

"I don't know." Maddy rubbed her eyes and tried to remember what happened last night. She remembered the first few toasts, dedicated to herself, Lia and Scotty. After that they started toasting to the Enterprise, outer space, Scotland, America, Scotch, and something about tribbles, but after that things started to blur.

"I need coffee." Lia staggered over to the replicator and got three cups. She gave one to Maddy and went over to wake up Scotty.

"Scotty." He snored. She nudged his arm. "Scotty, wake up." Maddy pushed her out of the way.

"Scotty, the British are taking over Scotland! Again!" Nothing. "And they're taking the Enterprise!" He shot up and almost knocked Maddy over.

"Those scurvy rats! Why I'll-what?" He looked around to see Lia handing him a cup of coffee. "What happened?" Lia took a sip of her own coffee and sat back down on her bed.

"We had a bit too much to drink last night. Do you remember anything?" Scotty put a hand to his head.

"I don't remember nothing after the Captain came here." Lia froze.

"What?" Scotty nodded, not noticing her distress.

"Aye, he came in after we finished the whiskey, I don't remember nothing after that." Lia looked at Maddy, disturbed.

"It's okay, you're still wearing your pants." Lia was only slightly comforted by that fact, she didn't wake up in his bed this time, but she'd have to be more careful next time. Really, he was here when she was drunk she could have agreed to anything, or done anything. She did have a tendency to get overheated when she was drunk, and she usually solved this problem by removing articles of her clothing.

"I think I'm going to avoid him today."

"I would." Scotty looked between them in bemusement.

"Sorry ta bother you lasses, but I've got ta report ta duty!" He waved to them and left the room.

"Don't forget to change!" She turned around to see Lia disappearing into the shower.

"Aw crap." She went over and picked up her science uniform and went over to the replicator. She stared at it in contemplation. They couldn't get all their clothes this way, it would be too wasteful. They must have a laundry machine somewhere. She began prowling the room, looking through drawers. She found what she was looking for in the closet next to her bed. Opening it, she found a row of hangers above three drawers. She opened the first one and was surprised to find a type of chute. She picked up her dirty clothes and threw them down and shut it. Hopefully she hadn't just thrown them away. She got a new outfit from the replicator and waited until Lia came out of the shower wringing her wet hair and wearing her own science uniform, before she entered the shower herself. Meanwhile, Lia had just finished putting on some light makeup and was staring at her hair in the mirror. Maybe she should put it up?

"If I had hairspray…" She fiddled around with possible styles before settling on just putting it in a bun. She'd try something more elaborate tomorrow. She sat down with her cup of coffee and studied the physics of transporters while she waited for Maddy. They were supposed to report to their new posts today, and she was feeling pretty nervous about it.

"They call me mellow yellooooow!" She heard Maddy singing from the bathroom, she didn't seem to be nervous about becoming real members of Starfleet. At that moment, the door chime sounded. She went and pressed the open button warily. A red shirt stood on the other side.

"I've been instructed to inform you that your individual quarters have finished being prepared. Here." He handed her a slim disk with a number and deck printed on it. "I have the other ensign's too, is she…" Lia cut him off.

"In the shower, I'll give it to her." He nodded and left. Lia stared at her room assignment. She didn't know they would get their own rooms, she looked around and grabbed the little bag on the vanity before putting Maddy's room assignment on the table by her bed. She left and room and headed for the lift. Her room was only one deck up and she was excited to see her new quarters. This was where she would live until the end of the five year mission. She exited the lift and walked down the hallway until she found the door with her room number on it. She inserted the disk into the console next to it and the doors slid open. It was almost identical to the room she and Maddy shared, except that it had only one bed against the wall, and a larger desk. It had more floor space as a result, which she liked, as it made the room look larger. She put the bag with her bath products and makeup on the vanity table and sat on the bed. She looked at the digital clock on the bedside table and saw she still had half an hour before she had orientation. Just as she pulled the computer attached to the wall over to her, her door chime went off. She went over and opened the door to reveal Kirk standing on the other side.

"Hello." She said warily. She really wanted to know what happened when he visited them last night.

"May I come in?" She stood aside and he walked into her room, the door sliding shut behind him. "Is it to your liking?" He gestured to the room at large and she nodded.

"Yeah, it's fine."

"How are you feeling?" He had a small smirk on his face and she suddenly very nervous about what she might have said to him yesterday.

"Um…fine."

"I'm only asking because Scotty reported to his post with quite the headache." She shuffled her feet and rubbed her arm.

"Um, yeah we had a few drinks last night." He smiled at her again.

"I noticed. Scotty made good on his promise?" She nodded.

"It wasn't just that, chances are Maddy and I would have tried getting drunk with or without Scotty, so you shouldn't hold anything against him."

"I wasn't planning to. What Mr. Scott does in his spare time is his business…Why would you have been drinking either way?" She avoided his eyes and instead focused on a spot on the door frame.

"We were…I was sad, and sometimes it's easier to be drunk than it is to be sad."

"I see." He clasped her hands in his. "I don't want you to be unhappy here. What can I do to help you?" Lia looked in his eyes and saw he was sincere. She smiled sadly.

"Nothing. I'll just have to get used to it here, it'll….take some time." He nodded.

"I understand. If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask." She gave him a questioning look.

"Did I….sing?" He gave her an amused look and feigned ignorance.

"Sing? Why do you ask?"

"I'm known to…sing when I've been drinking." Kirk tried not to smile.

"I do believe I remember you singing something about….a priceline negotiator?" She blinked and tried not to laugh.

"Did I?"

"Yes, you also asked about a trip to Hawaii." This time she did laugh, if all she did was ask for a trip to Hawaii she didn't have to worry so much. She was afraid she might have propositioned him.

"That's good to know."

"You did mention something else as well…"

"I did?" Her voice quivered. _'Please let it not be something about my ass.' _

"Yes, you mentioned I had, as you said, good eyes." He was giving her a charming smile, and her faced turned bright red from embarrassment.

"Um…?" He lifted her chin up and looked her in the eyes.

"Yours are beautiful as well, even more so when you smile. I hope you'll be able to smile more often." She was stunned into silence. He smiled at her one more time before saying his good-byes and leaving. She sat down on her bed, stunned, when she looked at the clock. She shot back up. Crap, she was going to be late.

"And these are the labs where we do all xenobiological testing." Maddy nodded. A biologist was showing her around, to prepare her for her duties in the science department. They were just concluding the tour.

"We'll be assigning you some entry lab work to start out with, as a learning internship with our senior biologists. Tomorrow you'll come on duty at 0800 hours, report to biology lab three, where you'll meet Phillips, one of our astrobiologists. He'll start your instruction." Maddy nodded. Good, she wouldn't really start until tomorrow.

"Alright." At that moment, Spock entered the department, heading toward one of the labs. The lieutenant nodded to him.

"Commander." Spock nodded to him.

"Yo! Spock, what up?" The lieutenant looked at her in shock.

"Ensign! You will address Commander Spock respectfully!" Spock came over to them.

"I was under the impression you received the instruction necessary to your function, Ensign." Maddy shrugged.

"Not really. Chapel just told us to style our hair and taught us how to hold a fork." By now her guide was thoroughly confused. Spock raised an eyebrow.

"I see. In that case I suggest you report back to Nurse Chapel, I will clarify my instructions to her." Maddy sighed.

"I'll just get Lia and head down there." Spock nodded.

"Indeed. Lieutenant." He inclined his head and left the room. Maddy trudged out to try and find the physics department, where Lia was going through her own orientation. Great, they had to sit through more of Chapel's lessons. She finally found the right door and went through to see Lia talking to a man sitting at a desk with a clear screen covering it, filled with equations. Maddy went over and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Hey, we have instructions to report to sick bay." She nodded to the man.

"Alright, report here tomorrow and we'll get started." Lia nodded to him and followed Maddy outside.

"Why?" Maddy sighed.

"We need more conduct lessons, apparently." Lia groaned.

"Great." They walked down the hallway toward the lift when Sulu walked around the corner. Maddy panicked and ducked behind Lia.

"What are you doing?"

"Hiding behind you."

"Maddy?" She looked around Lia and saw Sulu giving her a curious look.

"Hey, Sulu what's up?" He seemed confused by her expression. "Um, I mean, how are you?" She stepped away from Lia and gave Sulu a shaky smile, hoping he wouldn't hit on her.

"I've been doing well. I haven't seen you in a few days, how's your house?"

"It is no longer on fire, thank you for asking."

"Where have you been assigned?"

"The biology labs."

"That sounds exciting." She shrugged.

"I'd rather be flying the ship." He smiled and was about to offer to teach her to fly when Lia grabbed her by the neck of her dress and dragged her away to sick bay.

"Sorry we've got orders to report to sick bay." Once clear of Sulu Lia released her. "And you call me oblivious."

"I didn't want to be mean. I want to be his friend; I just don't want to date him. I have a sexy doctor for that." They walked into sick bay and Chapel beckoned them.

"Come on girls." She led them back into the empty room and handed them both datapads. "These contain all the information on codes of conduct within Starfleet. Read them, I'll be back in a moment." They sat down and began to read.

"Did you know we're not supposed to run around naked?"

"It says proper dress."

"Yeah, not being naked. You're going to have trouble with that."

"Shut up! I will not!" They continued to argue until Chapel came back in. She proceeded to quiz them on rules and regulations they had to follow while on a starship, and they were forced to do a mock test where Maddy was the Ensign, and Lia was the Commander.

"Ensign set sail, our bearings north to Tortuga." Maddy stood at attention and saluted.

"Aye, aye Captain." Chapel nodded in approval, although a little confused about the orders.

"And bring me my bottle of rum, and me my hat. On the double." Lia posed as if looking out at the ocean.

"Captain how long will we be making port?" Good, good Maddy was still being respectful, despite their odd role play.

"Just till I seduce me a certain pirate captain." Maddy suddenly wasn't so willing to play ensign anymore.

"No, ya won't be. That'll be me sleeping with da captain." Lia waved her off.

"He wouldn't want you you're too short."

"You're too tall. Women in that time weren't tall, he'd think you were a guy."

"No he won't! I've got tits!" To make her point Lia grabbed her boobs, and Chapel decided to stop this before it escalated anymore.

"That's enough."

"So do I!"

"I'm more adventurous and up his alley."

"Cause you're easy!"

"That's you!"

"Exactly why he'd end up with me and not you."

"He'd throw you away after he slept with you."

"No way! I've read so many fics, I know how to keep a pirate."

"Just like you knew how to keep Erik?" Her eyes narrowed.

"You bitch!"

"You slut!"

"Whore!"

"Skank!"

"Prep!" Lia gasped and made a strangled horrified sound.

"This means war!" Lia went to the replicator and returned with two swords. She tossed one to Maddy. "To the death."

"No, to the pain." They immediately started dueling around the sick bay, knocking over medical equipment and scaring the staff. Chapel backed against the wall.

"Stop this immediately!" They knocked over several chairs and Lia was about to cut off Maddy's hand when McCoy came into the room.

"What's going on here!" Maddy froze and Lia toppled into her. They crashed to the ground.

"I'm so sorry Doctor, we were just doing some role-play and they started dueling!" Lia and Maddy stood up and dusted themselves off. Maddy picked up her sword, and seeing the look on McCoy's face, promptly threw it over her shoulder. It landed on the desk, piercing a data pad.

"Oops." McCoy stared at them for a moment, a mixture of emotions flashing over his face, before turning to Chapel.

"I'll take care of this Nurse, you two, follow me." He led them to his office and they sat down nervously. He sat down across themselves and steepled his fingers.

"I don't know if that's you how you solve disputes in your world, but that's not how you solve them here. And where did you get those swords?" They pointed to a replicator across the room and he sighed.

"Of course. Now then, I should have guessed that you two would go a little stir crazy, having never been confined like this before, so I'll let this pass, and not inform the Captain. I'm going to suggest you two spend some time in our exercise facilities, where you can safely duel all you want." Maddy couldn't believe it. He was letting them off the hook! She stood up.

"I'm sorry, it won't happen again, I promise. It's just that, well, we do duel a lot back home." McCoy nodded and stood up.

"All right, follow me, and try to look properly chastised." They walked through sick bay, Lia and Maddy with their heads down, and went and got into the lift.

"I'm going to take you two to the exercise facilities so you can burn off some energy." While McCoy's back was turned, Maddy tried fixing her hair and straightening her clothes. She paused mid-preening and wondered how they were supposed to exercise in dresses, and if in the future they still had sports bras. Meanwhile Lia was wondering something else.

"Hey, Bones can we go on the next ground mission?"

"Well, that depends on what we're assigned. If it's not dangerous, I can put in a recommendation, but it's really up to the Captain." Lia nodded. She'd probably have to ask Kirk. They got off the lift and entered a large gym separated into smaller rooms, containing tennis courts, weight machines, aerobic rooms, and several basketball hoops. McCoy led them to an open room in the back where there were several weapons lining the walls. He gestured to the locker rooms.

"The safety equipment is in there." Lia and Maddy looked at him.

"Yes, you have to wear it, I'll not have one of you coming to me missing a limb!" Lia sighed.

"Fine." They went and put on the protective white clothing and put on the masks.

"I hate these things."

"Me too." They each picked up a foil and stood in starting position.

"En garde!" They began dueling, deciding that the loser asked Kirk to go on the next shore mission. Lia fought particularly hard. Soon though, they had drawn a crowd. Some of the crew started taking bets and picking sides.

"Five credits on the tall one."

"You're on."

Maddy lunged at Lia, who swiveled to the side and counter attacked, Maddy blocked her and parried Lia's foil away and tried hitting her again, but she jumped out of the way, and gave a loud battle cry before unleashing a new attack on Maddy.

"For Narnia!" She swiped at Maddy's fencing arm and tried to cut her hand off. Maddy barely got her hand out of the way.

"Lia…" She paused and released a heavy breath. "Join the Dark Side."

"Never! You killed my father!"

"No, Lia I am your father."

"NOOOO!" She released an anguished cry and they started dueling again. Maddy parried and jumped back.

"My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die!" They began dueling again.

"You just said you were my father!"

"I lied!" They continued and neither was making headway when Maddy stopped.

"I'm hungry." Lia also stopped.

"Me too."

"Wanna get something to eat?"

"Yeah, let's go." They dropped their weapons, took off their helmets, and left the room. The spectators looked at each other.

"Who won?" McCoy muttered a curse under his breath and followed the girls out of the exercise facilities. He paused mid-stride when he saw the girls changing out of their fencing gear. Maddy noticed he was staring at them and pushed Lia out of the way.

"Hello." She gave him a smile that hopefully came off as innocent. He stared with an open mouth for a moment, before turning around.

"Lockers?" He asked tersely, and the girls looked at each other.

"Oh yeah, uh, oh well." Lia finished changing and started off down the hall. Maddy hung back.

"Sorry, we were in the moment." She turned him and he sighed.

"You two really do have a lot to learn. Lucky for you, I've got time." Maddy matched his grin and they left, arm in arm.

In the following weeks the girls had fallen into a sort of a routine. They would wake up, go to their respective stations, and stay there for the next several hours researching, plugging in data, and studying and doing various assignments. During their free time they would hang out in the sick bay, play basketball, and fence in the exercise facilities. Lia made it her practice to avoid the bridge at all times, Maddy kept teasing her about Kirk, and she was worried she really was starting to fall under his spell. And he had had so many women, she was afraid she'd just become a fling. She would not let that happen. They had finally managed to befriend Chekov and Sulu without them trying flirt with them, by introducing them to two young female science officers. They would either spend their evenings with them or in the sick bay, where Maddy would try to chat up McCoy. Then they would turn in for the night and start the whole thing over the next day. Today was different though. The Enterprise had been assigned to investigate an unknown planet, and the girls were trying their hardest to be allowed on the landing party. Since it was a routine scouting mission on an uninhabited planet, they thought at least one of them would get to go.

"I put the request in with the Captain, saying that you two need to get off this ship so you don't get cabin fever, but the first party will be small. I haven't heard back from him yet." Lia and Maddy nodded. They were sitting in sick bay with Chapel and McCoy. Chapel had become their confidant on all things girly on the ship. She got them bath products, make up, and the future equivalent of tampons, which caused some confusion when introduced.

"You could ask him." Lia gave Maddy a look and shook his head. She and Kirk had seen each other little in the past couple weeks, she had spent more time with Spock in the science department. Though each time she had seen him, he had been very polite, and she had begun to feel like they could be friends. But she wasn't going to start asking favors.

"No." Maddy sighed and pouted slightly, Kirk wasn't going to let them go down if she asked and she really wanted to get off the ship.

"Did you ever see the movie Cabin Fever?" Lia nodded. "That's what's going to happen to me if I don't go down on the landing party. So hike up your dress and go ask the Captain." Lia gave her a nasty look.

"Stop trying to prostitutionize me."

"But he won't listen to me."

"I don't care."

"Aw." McCoy and Chapel, not being blind, noticed Kirk was attracted to Lia. They respectfully said nothing on the matter, unlike Maddy, who was constantly teasing her about it.

"If the initial landing party doesn't encounter any problems I'm sure the Captain will let the two of you go down."

"Are you going down on the planet?" McCoy laughed.

"Of course! Unfamiliar planet, gotta have medical staff on hand in case something goes wrong." Lia and Maddy looked at him. He cleared his throat.

"Not that anything will, of course." Chapel excused herself and Lia got up. Time for her to let Maddy and McCoy have some alone time.

"Night." She waved and walked into the corridor. She decided instead of going straight to the lift, she'd explore a little. She hadn't spent much time on this deck, and she wasn't tired. She went past the medical wing, to unfamiliar corridors, until she found a dead end. It was a hatch that led to engineering, and she had no desire to see where it went. She sighed and turned around, maybe she'd find something interesting on her own floor. She went back and got into the lift, she only had to go up three floors, but on the next one the lift stopped. Spock stepped aboard and Lia blinked, huh, she'd just been thinking about him.

"Ensign." She smiled and said nothing, but he wasn't done.

"I've been meaning to speak to you and Miss Flint about your transition here. How have you been adjusting?"

"As well as can be expected. I've been enjoying my work in the physics department." Spock nodded. This one was much easier to deal with than the other.

"Excellent."

"Do you think it would be possible to join the ground crew? I'm not used to prolonged periods in space, I'm getting kind of…..claustrophobic." Spock nodded.

"I see, I know that Dr. McCoy put a request in for you to join the ground crew as well, though I have yet to hear the Captain's decision." Lia sighed.

"Yeah, same. " She decided to try and compromise. "I know the biology teams are going down, if it's deemed safe, do you think I could go down with them? It was my minor, so it wouldn't look like I was being favored or anything." Spock considered her request.

"I will pose it to the Captain. Ensign." He nodded to her again and got off the lift. She sighed and got off on her own floor. Well, she could hope.

The next day saw both girls in the sick bay waiting to hear if they were allowed to go with the landing party or if they had to report to their posts. Maddy had started packing a bag with everything she thought might come in handy in an emergency, just in case. It was rather large.

"Don't you think that'll raise suspicion?" Maddy hoisted it over her shoulder.

"I'll just say its equipment." Lia lounged on a desk chair and put her feet up.

"What all do you have in there anyway?"

"Compass, matches, a canteen, rope, duct tape, an mp3 player, a datapad, and a spare uniform." Lia stared.

"Where did you get that stuff?"

"Replicator." At that moment McCoy came into the med bay.

"Good news, if the initial landing party goes well, you two will be sent down with the second string to take additional readings."

"Whoohoo!" They went to high-five, but missed. Maddy, in an attempt to make it look like that's what was supposed to happen, turned around and clicked her tongue while pointing her fingers like guns. Everyone in the sickbay gave her a look like she was insane.

"Anyway, how long is the initial landing party going to be there?"

"Four hours." The girls looked slightly disheartened, they didn't want to wait that long. Maddy looked at him and gave him her best puppy dog eyes.

"If everything's secure after an hour can we beam down? Please?"

"That might not be possible." He gave her a smile. "But I'll see what I can do." This time instead of high-fiving, Maddy decided it would be safer to fist bump in victory. This was successful. They walked out of sick bay together with a promise from McCoy that he would contact them as soon as they could beam down.

` "Guess we have to go to our posts."

"Yep." They went to their departments and waited.

At an Expensive French Restaurant in the Past…

Rand was fiddling with her butter knife, trying to fight off the butterflies in her stomach, while waiting for her date to return. Barrows and she had been released from the hospital the day after she woke up. Before being discharged her doctor, Jack Collins, asked her out to dinner. She had accepted, against her better judgment, and here she was. Everything was so quaint here, like a dream. After they were released, Barrows had found a message on her antiquated phone, in code. A very well used code in their time. Barrows had been excitedly translating it ever since. It seems that while transporting them failed, they did manage a message, and they were very eager to know what it said. In the meantime, they decided to take the identities of the women they displaced, in order to avoid suspicion. They had received calls from family members and had informed them they were extending their stay in California, telling whatever lies they could think of to convince them. Needless to say, it worked. At that moment, her cell phone rang.

"Yes?" It was the number of Barrows's phone, she wondered why she was calling, she knew she was on a date. She frowned, all she could hear was sobbing. "Tonia? Tonia, what's wrong?" She was really getting worried now. Her date came back to the table and paused, seeing her concerned look.

"We can't…we can't go back!" She stopped crying long enough to get her message across. Rand dropped the phone. No, that couldn't be right, she had to get back, had to see what she was going on about. She stood up, Dr. Collins following suit, and apologized.

"I'm sorry, there's something wrong with Tonia, could we postpone?" He nodded seriously.

"Of course." Damn, she'd been looking forward to this. She pressed a quick kiss to his lips and hurried to the door.

"Sorry!" She had to get back and see the message for herself, before she would believe they couldn't go home.

Time Warp…

McCoy had done it, he had been able to convince Kirk to let them come down with a more experienced physicist and xenobiologist, and only after an hour and a half. Maddy was struggling to refrain from breaking out into a happy dance as she walked beside Phillips, the biologist she was working under. They met Lia and another physicist in the lift and reported to the transporter room to beam down. Lia was working under a physicist that was sent down to study the affect gravity had on the planet. They got on the transporter pad and both of them felt a chill. What if something happened? The girls looked at each other just as they beamed out of sight.

"All clear." They blinked and found themselves on the planet's surface. It didn't look that different from Earth, except that the vegetation was different, and the sky was indigo. They looked around excitedly, trying to act professional.

"This way, Ensign." Lia followed her superior and they disappeared from sight. Maddy was too busy making sure everything was in its place to notice when she left. Phillips was giving her an odd look.

"Still afraid of the transporter?" Satisfied everything was where it should be, she answered him.

"It's just damn unnatural." He chuckled slightly before handing her a tricorder and telling her to take readings of the surrounding area. She took readings on the plant life, composition of the soil, and was eagerly looking for any other type of life when she heard footsteps behind her. Ready for a random alien attack, she spun around.

"A bit jumpy, Madeleine?" She sighed and stood up. McCoy stood behind her, looking particularly smug.

"Not at all Doctor, but you might want to examine me all the same." He laughed and they started walking around a pond with gray water.

"Not too bad, huh?" He gestured to the surroundings and she nodded.

"Yeah, it's different, but at least I'm off the ship."

"Space travel takes some getting used to, a third of the classes at the academy teach a cadet how to handle it. For never having any type of training you're not doing too badly." She laughed.

"Well thank you." She paused and examined a pink plant next to the water, its leaves were curled upward and maroon. "Pretty."

"Indeed." She turned around and saw McCoy looking at her, she stood up and faced him. "Very pretty." She realized he wasn't talking about the flower and willed herself not blush.

"The company's not bad either." They stood close together and sealed the gap between them with a kiss, Maddy's tricorder forgotten.

For the first time in a long time Jim Kirk was on an incident free ground mission. It seemed like the past seventy-nine shore missions he went on something always went wrong. He and his crew would encounter Klingons, or Romulans, or some other hostile alien. He would have to signal red alert and the Enterprise would be in some sort of danger. It was _pleasant_ to be on an uneventful planet. He walked around, nodding to the survey teams as they studied the different specimens. It was rather beautiful, really. He spoke briefly to several survey members, and continued walking through the grass, if you could call it that. It was then he came upon Lia, holding a datapad and stylus, making calculations. Her hair was down today. He came up behind her and cleared his throat. She spun around, startled.

"Captain!" He smiled at her and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear.

"How are you enjoying the mission?" She was blushing, and he couldn't help finding it adorable.

"It's very interesting. Thank you for letting me come down. I was going a little stir crazy." She smiled, and he was suddenly very eager to see if he could get her to do it again.

"I was serious when I said I wanted you to be happy aboard the Enterprise. I'm just glad that a simple shore mission can make you smile like that." Now her face was beat red. She turned away and pressed a button on her tricorder, willing herself to stop blushing. At that moment Spock appeared.

"Captain, I've talked to the scouting parties, they cleared the planet for shore leave." Kirk nodded.

"All right, authorize shore leave for off duty personnel, we'll be here for two more days." Spock nodded. The planet was of interest to the Federation for several medicinal plants found on the surface. They were to collect samples to clone and drop off at the next Starbase for more testing.

"Are you planning on going back up to the ship, sir?" Kirk glanced at Lia, distracted.

"Uh, no Mr. Spock, I think I'll stay down here a little longer." Lia internally groaned. Heaven only knows what Spock thought of her now, especially with Kirk winking at her.


	6. Plant Love

A/N: Thank you for all the reviews, alerts and favorites, and special thanks to Kitty243, EdwardElirLover22, Random Redshirt, PassionateSoul and JASPERHALEFOREVER for your wonderful reviews on the last chapter.

Plant Love

Tonia Barrows stared out of her hotel window, watching the primitive cars drive by. She didn't like the vehicles in this time; they were loud, ugly, and noisy pollutants. But she was going to have to get used to them, like she was going to have to get used to slow weak computers, archaic science, and a planet filled with war she would never be able to leave. She pushed her red hair out of her face and tugged on her ill-fitting clothing. Janice and she had put off buying different clothing, out of prudence for the money that wasn't theirs, and the hope that they would be returning home soon. But after decoding that message from the Enterprise she knew they couldn't put it off any longer. Just like they couldn't put off trying to find a place in this world. Spock had several suggestions for them, ones they planned to explore.

"Are you ready?" Barrows nodded. Rand had come out of the bathroom ready to leave. They had packed the belongings that were not theirs and were preparing to get on a plane, they had found the tickets in their wallets. Though both of them were wary of the ancient flying machines, there was no other way to get to their 'homes.' They were going to see the family's of the girls they had replaced. They weren't sure what they were going to say or do, but they figured they should know their daughters weren't coming back. It was going to be a difficult talk, and they probably wouldn't believe them, but they believed they had the right to know. After that, well, who knows? They took one last look around their little hotel room and walked out the door to the taxi waiting outside. What they were about to do was more frightening than any mission they'd been a part of on the Enterprise.

Lia had never been happier to be on solid ground. Life in the Enterprise had some down sides she hadn't counted on. Kirk's attraction to her aside, she was terrified that at any moment the ship would malfunction and she'd be dead in space, or she'd be kidnapped by some crazy alien, or should lose an arm when she transported somewhere…. And then there was the fact that she had never done well in confined spaces, and the Enterprise was very confining. She had started missing the sun the third day she was there, and the lack of it was making her skin near vampiric paleness, something she was really pissed about, and something Maddy wouldn't stop teasing her about. And then there was the lack of fresh air.

Needless to say she was very pleased to be on a planet, especially a planet with these things in abundance. She had finished calculating the planet's gravitational constants, something she was rather proud of, and had been given leave by her superior to enjoy the surface until she had to report back to duty the next day. They were going easy on her, partially because the human colony Spock claimed they came from was apparently not all that technologically advanced, which worked out well for her. And since he phrased it a certain way, he was not telling a lie. He was damn smart. She daydreamed about him for a moment, before a movement out of the corner of her eye startled her.

"What?" She peered curiously at a plant with a large purple flower, which seemed to be shaking. She got into a crouch, ready to run if it suddenly sprouted tentacles or something, but then…it sneezed.

"Achoo!" She stared. Pollen flew into the air and the flower sniffled. She inhaled the pollen and sneezed back at the plant. It recoiled just as she had. She moved forward and it moved forward. She moved her left arm and it followed suit with its left leaf. She stood up and the plant seemed to grow taller, she squatted and the plant shrank.

"Fascinating." She pulled out her communicator to contact Spock, he'd probably be as interested as she was, or at least she hoped he would be. Unfortunately the plant had different ideas. Before she knew what happened or how it happened the plant had somehow eaten her communicator.

"That's not normal." It crunched contentedly and if she had to guess, was rather thankful for the snack. For it now stood at attention, and if it had eyes, she would swear it was staring at her. She moved away, intent on finding another crewmember with a communicator, but to her surprise the plant hoisted itself up and its roots came free. She walked backward, not taking her eyes off the plant as it followed her, its roots bent and moving like little feet. It radiated a sense of obedience, not unlike a dog or something similar. She kept walking backward, and eventually intersected several people on shore leave. They stared at the plant as it followed her. She cleared her throat.

"Ummm, can someone call Spock-I mean Commander Spock and tell him I have-a dog plant?" They just nodded and contacted Spock, eyeing Lia's dog plant. She stepped closer, holding her hand out, trying to see how close she could get, when she heard Maddy's voice.

"Dang it we can't go anywhere without you adopting something!" She walked over to her side with McCoy next to her, both keeping a respectful distance away from Lia's plant dog. "I bet it doesn't even use photosynthesis, it probably eats blood like in Little Shop of Horrors."

"It ate my communicator."

"See!"

"It was made of metal." That didn't faze Maddy.

"You just wait, it'll go for people next." Lia had leaned toward it so that her fingers were just inches away from the leaves, when the plant closed the distance, rubbing itself against her hand. Maddy sighed.

"I am so not surprised right now." She sat down on the ground and the plant reared around and snapped at her. She quickly got back up.

"See! Why do your pets always hate me?" At that moment Spock appeared in the clearing. He pulled out his tricorder and watched as Lia scratched the petals of the flower, which were much thicker than the petals of any flower on Earth.

"Fascinating, it seems to have some sense of awareness, and is reacting to Ensign Acacia's pheromones." Lia pulled her hand back and Maddy's face twisted in a rather comical expression.

"Say that again Spock?" He looked up from his tricorder.

"The plant identifies her as a female of its species, thus-" But Lia's eyes widened and she quickly darted behind Spock. That thing was male? Maddy burst out laughing.

"Oh this is good, looks like you've got a new boyfriend Lia!" The plant waddled over to Spock, and hissed. Spock raised an eyebrow.

"Interesting, it seems it sees me as competition." Maddy really had to restrain herself here, or Lia would never forgive her. Lia just danced nervously behind Spock, while the other crewmen moved on, casting amused glances at the plant. McCoy was taking his own tricorder readings.

"This thing's leaves have medicinal uses! Do you think we could clone one so I could study it further?" Spock nodded.

"We must have a sample in order to do that Doctor, and I don't believe any of us will be able to get close enough to get one." Maddy glanced slyly at Lia.

"Maybe if Lia asks nicely…." The blonde glared at her friend.

"No way!" Spock crossed his arms.

"Ensign Flint does have a point; you may be able to get close enough to get a sample." Though Lia was now wary of the plant that was standing in front of Spock, puffing itself up to look threatening, she didn't want to go and rip a leaf off. It seemed cruel.

"I don't know, can't we wait until it drops a leaf? Oh, I know! I'll show you where I found it, maybe it left something there." Spock nodded.

"That will be agreeable." Lia carefully walked around Spock, the plant mirroring her, and began quickly walking back to where she found it. It waddled as fast as it could after her, Spock following more leisurely while fiddling with his tricorder. Maddy smirked at McCoy.

"So….do you want to tell Kirk or should I?"

"Be my guest." She grinned, and pulled out her communicator.

"Oh goody. Maddy to Kirk, you there Captain?"

"Kirk here." Maddy tried to repress her grin as she talked to Kirk, trying to sound concerned and failing miserably.

"Ah Captain, I'm afraid I have some distressing news. It seems you've got competition for Lia's heart. You might want to get over here soon. He keeps on putting the moves on her." By the end Maddy was trying her hardest not to start laughing. McCoy was having a similar problem.

"I….see. And I guess that you do not approve?" Maddy tried to sound convincing.

"Not at all! They're an awful match, but I'm afraid of his temper." Kirk was beginning to get concerned. "And he's so forward. I'm afraid for her safety really, he seems very dangerous."

"…I'll be right there. Kirk out." Maddy flipped her communicator closed and let out the laugh she'd been holding in. She was out of breath by the time she finally regained her composure. She wiped a tear from her eye.

"Oh god that was great." She let out another chortle. "My sides hurt from laughing so hard." She clutched her sides and felt McCoy's hands on hers.

"I can help with that. I'm a Doctor after all." She grinned at him.

"That's very kind of you Doctor."

"The least I could do. Now would you like to see how your friend is doing?"

"More than anything." He gave her a suggestive look.

"Anything?"

"Weeell, Almost anything." Meanwhile, Lia led Spock to where she had found the plant rooted, and there was indeed a leaf on the ground. Spock picked it up and put it in a bag.

"The Doctor will be most pleased with this." The plant's attention diverted from Lia for the first time since she'd seen it and latched onto Spock's boot. Spock gently tried to shake it off but it was obvious now that it intended to eat it.

"Take it off!" Spock did and the plant happily munched on the boot. And as it did, it seemed to grow slightly…..larger.

"It ate my communicator, and your boot. It certainly has a strange diet." Spock nodded.

"I agree." It finished and puffed itself up again, turning to Lia as if to say 'well, what do you think of me now?' Lia cleared her throat nervously.

"Oh my." Spock watched with interest.

"It appears to be trying to gain your favor with a show of its abilities." It puffed itself larger and did an odd shuffle. Lia was growing more and more concerned.

"I don't want to mate with him!"

"And you won't have to." Kirk appeared from behind a boulder and jumped down to stand beside her. He took her by the shoulders and held her close.

"Spock, where is this man that's making unwanted advances on one of my crew? Is he a crewman himself?" Kirk scoured the area, looking for any sign of the unknown male.

"Right there Captain." Spock pointed to the plant, and Kirk did a double take and stared at the flower.

"This is trying to mate with you?"

"YES!" The plant didn't seem to like Kirk holding her and jumped into the air, trying to attack him. It took everyone by surprise and Kirk was barely able to block his face with his arm, before the plant's attack landed and he bit into Kirk's elbow. Spock took out a phaser, but Lia waved her arms.

"Stop right now!" Her tone had effect, and the plant looked at her curiously. This gave Kirk enough time to shove it off of him and leap to his feet. Lia kept her eyes on the plant.

"That was not nice! Bad!" The plant seemed to understand it was being scolded and shrunk down on itself. Lia crossed her arms. "Oh no, don't you try that with me! You don't do that again, you understand?" She looked at Spock. "Do you think you could locate a female for it? So that it will stop fixating on me?" Spock nodded and reset his tricorder.

"Hey guys! Oh-" Maddy and McCoy walked around the bend to see Kirk holding his elbow and Lia glaring at the plant like it was a puppy that just chewed her favorite pair of shoes. Maddy paused, but McCoy went into medical mode and was examining Kirk's elbow.

"Huh, I'll be. Though it may have injured you physically, whatever was in its….bite actually did you some good." Kirk looked at McCoy incredulously.

"You've got to be joking Bones." McCoy shook his head.

"Even now, it's strengthening your immune system." They all stared at the plant.

"So….it's bite heals?" McCoy nodded at Maddy.

"Seems to, Spock, did you manage to get a sample?" Spock nodded and handed McCoy the bag with the leaf inside it. McCoy looked ecstatic.

"I need to get up to the lab and examine this further, if you don't mind." Maddy shrugged.

"Go for it." He walked away and Kirk moved toward Lia, only to have the plant hiss at him again. Lia rounded on it.

"Oh no, we just talked about this!" It shrunk back down and she sighed.

"I have located a female of its species three kilometers west of here." Kirk eyed the plant warily.

"Beam it over here Mr. Spock, so that my crew can work in peace." Spock nodded and flipped open his communicator. Kirk nodded to Lia and himself.

"And tell transport to beam us up, I'll not risk her here with that thing." He glared at the plant and it seemed to glare back at him.

"Ah, but they're such a cute couple." Now Lia and Kirk were glaring at Maddy.

"Maddy, have I ever told you you're a bad person?"

"Once or twice. So did it get to first or second base?" Lia picked up a rock and tossed it a Maddy's head. She dodged and before she could say anything else, Kirk and Lia had beamed up to the ship. Lia sighed.

"That was….unwelcome." Kirk took her arm and led her out into the hallway.

"Do you need to go to sick bay?" They stopped and she shook her head.

"No, I'm fine, just confused." Kirk nodded.

"You and me both." She gave him a pleading expression.

"We're leaving soon, right?" He smiled.

"Yes, I believe we are."

"I don't think I want to go back down anytime soon." He smiled at her and led her to her room. Once there, they stood in silence for a moment before locking eyes. He began to lean down and Lia's eyes started fluttering closed. Their lips were about to meet, when the unfortunate happened. Maddy interrupted them.

"Lia! I'm sorry to say, but you've been dumped by a purple flower with an attitude problem for another purple flower plant thing. I know this breaks your heart, but you have to think about the children. The ugly, blonde, plant children the two of you would have had." She patted Lia on the shoulder. "Be strong. It's for the best." She either ignored or actually didn't notice the murderous look Kirk was giving her, and pranced off. She successfully ruined the moment, and brought Lia back to her senses. She was about to kiss him! Granted, he was very gallant, coming to her aid like he did, but she didn't kiss every guy that saved her from purple flower plants! She smiled at him and keyed in her code.

"I'm going to….lie down, I'll see you later?" He nodded, still looking dazed and she disappeared into her room, the door sliding closed behind her, leaving Kirk standing and staring at the place she had just occupied. He was going to get Maddy for this.

"Lock in course Mr. Sulu." Kirk lounged in the Captain's chair, his eyes on the view screen.

"Course locked in sir."

"Warp factor 2, Mr. Sulu." They left orbit and the lift doors opened behind Kirk to reveal Dr. McCoy, who came up behind his chair. Kirk pretended he didn't know he was there, he was still miffed the good doctor was in on Maddy's little stunt.

"Good news Jim, you're now immune to Andorian ring worms."

"That's great Bones." He hoped his tone of voice would indicate to McCoy that he had no interest in the subject and was still put off. He focused his attention on the view screen, ignoring the good doctor.

"Aw, cheer up Jim it's not every day you're cured of arthritis and defeat your rival in love in the same day."

"I didn't have arthritis to begin with."

"And now you won't have to worry about it later in life."

"Bones, shouldn't you be in the sick bay?" Bones leaned closer and lowered his voice so the rest of the bridge wouldn't hear him.

"Now Jim, just because Maddy and I might have….misled you doesn't mean you have to hold a grudge. It was all in good sport."

"Trust me Bones, I'm going to get you back one day." McCoy laughed and silently vowed to watch his back.

"Gentlemen." Spock had joined them. McCoy gestured to Kirk.

"The Captain's still upset he almost lost his chance with Lia to a flower." He laughed and Spock raised an eyebrow.

"The plant did seem earnest in its attempt to mate with Miss Acacia." They both turned and looked at Spock. "I inferred from your tone that you did not take the threat seriously, when, in fact, it was." McCoy gaped.

"Come on Spock, it was only a flower! Surely it couldn't do much harm!" Spock put his hands behind his back.

"Need I remind you Doctor, of the plants on Gamma Trianguli and their tendency to fire poison darts?"

"Enough said Spock."

One week later saw the Enterprise heading toward Starbase 12 for a personnel change. Lia and Maddy were once again itching to get off the ship, and Scotty had promised to show them around once they got to the Starbase. During that time Maddy and McCoy had spent almost all of their off duty time together, leaving Lia to seek out Chapel for company. She had run into Spock once in the rec room, and actually managed to spend time with him. He had taught her how to play 3-D chess, and though it took her a while, she was beginning to make progress. She was heading back to her quarters one night after a particularly rousing game when the ship hit space turbulence. She wasn't actually sure if it was space turbulence, but that is what Maddy and she had taken to calling it. She was thrown off her feet and hit her head on the wall.

"Ow." She sat up and held her head and leaned against the wall, only to have the wall disappear on her. "Dammit." She fell to the floor and hit her head again.

"Hallo?" She looked up and saw Chekov standing over her, so the wall she leaned against was a door that made sense. He grinned.

"Ah, I see you couldn't stay away." He helped her up and she looked around to see she was in…his room?

"Your room is only down the hall from mine!" Another jolt sent them both flying and Chekov once again helped her up and frowned.

"I vonder vhat is going on?" Lia shrugged.

"I don't know….where are you going?" Chekov headed out the door and toward the lift.

"I am to go on shift now, vhy don't you come vith?" Lia shrugged, she was pretty curious.

"Okay, but I'll probably get kicked off the bridge." After a turbulent ride in the lift they finally made it to the bridge. Chekov rushed to his station and relieved Lieutenant Jameson. He left the bridge, obviously relieved to get out, and hurried to the lift. Lia stood to the side and watched as Kirk barked out orders and declared a red alert.

"Sulu, maximum power to shields, Chekov, evasive maneuvers." Chekov scrambled to obey.

"Keptain, vhat are ve evading?" Spock answered him.

"We are being attacked by someone with a very sophisticated cloaking device."

"Trace where those blasts are coming from, Chekov! Ready photon torpedoes!" But before Sulu could fire, they were hit directly. Everyone went flying, Spock ended up on helm control, Chekov and Sulu ended up on the floor, Uhura ended up at Spock's station, and Lia ended up in hers. Kirk somehow managed to keep in his seat and turned to engineering.

"What's the damage Scotty?" Scotty got to his feet looking grim.

"Our shields are gone Captain, another hit like that and we're goners." Lia got up and stood next to communications as Uhura rushed back to her station. A second later, she frowned.

"Captain, we are being hailed."

"Onscreen, Lieutenant." A Romulan male appeared on the view screen.

"Greetings Enterprise. Oh, don't look surprised." For Kirk and several other crewmen looked startled they knew their vessel. "We know you well Captain Kirk, and we are willing to negotiate terms of surrender." Kirk stood up.

"Why are you attacking a Federation ship, in Federation territory? Any attack on us will be considered an act of war."

"Ah Kirk, did you think we would let this opportunity pass us by? You are two days away from the nearest Starbase, and are nowhere near any Federation vessels. Now, give us the cloaking devices you have stolen, and we may spare your lives." Kirk looked at Spock, who raised an eyebrow.

"We have no cloaking devices, you have been given false information." The Romulan looked at Kirk with incredulity, and Spock turned back to his station.

"Do you think me a fool Captain? Our scanners clearly read two separate readings, you have stolen our technology and we will not let this pass." Spock walked over to the Captain and spoke softly.

"Captain, Romulan cloaking devices emit tachyon particles." Years of Captaincy had taught Kirk never to show a physical reaction to a situation, but in this instance he was having a difficult time keeping his eyes off Lia.

"Have security escort both girls to sick bay, it offers the best protection."

"Captain, our shields are down, not even the extra protection sick bay offers would be able to stop a transporter."

"Dammit Spock, I know!" He took a deep breath. "I know. Have security get her out of here." Spock motioned the bridge security guard and had him guide Lia out on the grounds she was not essential personnel. She went, staring worriedly at the screen, she needed to ask Maddy about this. They went down to sick bay and she rushed in to see Maddy sitting at a table, McCoy was busy in another room.

"Maddy!" She hissed. She hurried over to the table and bent in close to prevent them being overheard. "We're being attacked by Romulans! And they think the particles we're emitting are a cloaking device, what do we do?"

"Don't worry, I have a contingency plan for this." She paused and then suddenly looked very, very defeated. "…The notebook I keep my contingency plans in is in my room." Lia gave her a horrified look.

"No worries. Are the shields up?" Lia shook her head.

"Kirk's negotiating with them right now, but there's only so long before they attack." Maddy nodded, understanding the gravity of the situation.

"From what I remember about Romulans is that even though their ancestors are from Vulcan, they do have emotions, they're xenophobic, they're devious, and Kirk is not their favorite person." Lia blinked.

"But….do you remember any other Romulan-Federation conflicts in this time?" Maddy cocked her head to the side.

"In the show they really only interacted about three times. Skirmishes around the neutral zone were common, but all out war at this time? Nadda. But worse comes to worse go with the story Spock gave us, and as for the tachyons…I'll think of something later." McCoy appeared behind them.

"What's going on? Jim just contacted me and told me the Romulans want you two!" They shushed him and pulled him down next to them.

"The tachyons we're emitting apparently look the same as Romulan cloaking devices on scan, so they think the Federation is stealing Romulan technology!" McCoy's face paled.

"Dang blasted Romulans!" On the bridge, Kirk had failed to negotiate. He sat back in his chair and looked at Sulu.

"Mr. Sulu, on my order, fire photon torpedoes." Sulu looked at Kirk uncertainly, as did Spock.

"Captain?"

"Stand by, Mr. Sulu." Kirk leapt over to Spock's station.

"Spock, if the Romulans find…them…and find out they have knowledge of future events…"

"The consequences would be dire Captain."

"Damn." He focused his attention on the Romulan ship. "Sulu, once the torpedoes have been fired, put the Enterprise in warp five, full reverse." Sulu and everyone else on the bridge looked at him in surprise. Captain Kirk, retreating? "Well, Sulu?" Sulu turned back to his station.

"Aye sir." Kirk sat back in his chair and pressed his comm.

"McCoy here." Kirk lowered his voice.

"McCoy, how are they?" McCoy looked over at Lia and Maddy, whose heads were together in a whispered conversation.

"Fine, trying to figure this out same as us, if I had to guess." Kirk nodded.

"Alright. Sulu, now."

"Firing photon torpedoes, sir." They watched as the torpedoes were deflected by the Romulan shields.

"Now, Mr. Sulu!"

"Full reverse, warp five sir." Kirk nodded and sat back. He'd never turned from a fight before, even when he was younger it was never in his nature to let a challenge go unmatched. But the terms of this match were too high. He watched the Romulan vessel fade from sight, fighting the urge to return to the battle. But for now the Enterprise, her crew, and the knowledge possessed by two individuals were safe.

"Romulan ship not pursuing."

"Odd for a Romulan ship not to pursue when the advantage is obviously theirs."

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth Spock. Kirk to sickbay." No answer. "Sick bay, respond." Still no answer. "Bones!"

"Sickbay here Captain." Chapel's voice sounded from the intercom.

"What's sick bay's stasis Nurse?" There was a pause before McCoy's voice came over the link.

"Jim, they're…._gone_."


	7. Behind Enemy Lines

A/N: Thanks go out to MissScarletWolf, Osperus, skiing Pelican, Kitty243, and JASPERHALEFOREVER for reviewing the last chapter.

Behind Enemy Lines

"Commander, beaming the stolen equipment aboard now." Two forms appeared on the transporter pad of the Romulan bird of prey and solidified into two female humans. The transporter chief frowned. "Commander, there has been a mistake, the beam must have been misdirected." The entire time, he had been speaking Romulan, leaving Maddy and Lia very confused. Lia rubbed her arms, it was cold. Two Romulans with phasers approached them, one of them began speaking Standard.

"Who are you?" The girls looked at each other.

"Ensign Madeleine Flint."

"Ensign Lia Acacia." The transporter chief was still conversing with the commander, and he spoke rapidly in Romulan to the security personnel. They nodded.

"Move." The two girls quickly got off the transporter pad, flanking by the guards, their phasers trained on them the entire time. Maddy began speaking.

"Look, obviously this has been one big mistake, you don't want us here, we don't want to be here. Why don't you just put the energizer in reverse and send us on our merry way? I promise I'll keep this off of facebook." One of the guards shoved Maddy and dug his phaser into her side.

"Do you have an HR rep I could talk to?" The guard shoved them into a cell, none too gently, engaged the lock and ignored her and Lia.

"That was your brilliant plan? Talk to the HR rep!" Maddy shrugged.

"No, I'm going to have to lodge a formal complaint with the Romulan Government about this." Lia fought the urge to throttle Maddy. Instead, she watched their guards, who were speaking to someone via comm. They were going to have to come up with an excuse fast….

The Enterprise was scanning the surrounding space looking for the Romulan bird of prey. But with nearly limitless directions the Romulans could have traveled and at warp speed the chance of finding them was, as Scotty had put it, 'a shot in the dark'. Still Jim Kirk wasn't about to give up. He had Chekov plotting a possible course and had spread a rumor that the girls were captured so that Kirk would give back the cloaking devices he didn't have. He, Spock, Scotty, and McCoy were meeting in a conference room to speak privately about what to do.

"They are likely traveling to the neutral zone Captain, but once they find they are not carrying cloaking devices, they will change tactics." Kirk nodded, grim. They would probably use them as hostages, until they found that they themselves were emitting the particles.

"Inform Chekov, have Sulu execute warp factor six." Spock nodded and left the room. Kirk reviewed the read-out of the Romulan ship another time. "Mr. Scott, when will the repairs to the ship be completed?"

"Within the next two hours."

"You've got one."

"Aye Captain." Scotty took his leave and returned to work on the engines, leaving Kirk and McCoy alone.

"What are we going to do, Jim?" Kirk slumped.

"I don't know Bones, I don't know." McCoy's face was drawn, but brightened slightly when he had an idea.

"Do you think they know something, about the layout of Romulan ships?" Kirk sighed, it was possible they knew something that could help them, but they couldn't count on that.

"They can't fight off a ship of Romulans, even if they did know something." McCoy's expression drooped. Jim was right. He stood up and put a hand on McCoy's shoulder.

"We'll get them back Bones." He left the room and headed back to the bridge.

"I hope so."

"And then I woke up next to him, wearing his Elvis wig." Maddy was trying to distract the Romulan guards so that Lia would be able to examine the brig's door. She was trying to find some way to disarm it. Maddy had suggested redirecting the beam with a mirror, unfortunately Lia had to point out that they didn't have a mirror. Undeterred Maddy moved on to Plan B. Unfortunately, this guard did not speak Standard. He looked very irritated as Maddy jabbered at him, until another Romulan entered the brig. The guard immediately straightened, and Maddy stopped talking. He walked up to their cell and stared at them impassively.

"My commander wishes to speak with you." He powered down the cell and pulled Maddy out of the cell by her arm, leading her to where she would meet with the Romulan commander.

"Have the other one brought when we have finished with this one." Maddy steeled herself for meeting the Romulan commander. She was taken through their ship to a room several decks up, where the commander was waiting in front of a table. Her guard pushed her into a chair and left the room, though she was confident he was guarding the door. The commander steepled his fingers and stared at her. Maddy swallowed and tried to meet his gaze.

"My science officer discovered something interesting, Ensign." Maddy said nothing.

"It seems that you are emitting a large amount of tachyon particles….you work in the science department, do you not?" Maddy nodded cautiously. "Tell me then….how is it you are emitting such radiation? Does the Federation have you experimenting with cloaking technology? Romulan technology maybe?" Maddy summoned her best poker face and tried thinking of something funny to distract her from this situation.

"Oh no, I'm a marine biologist. Don't know a damn thing about tachyons. Know a lot about sharks though. It was always my goal to have a special on the Discovery Channel during Shark Week."

"I will not be made fun of Ensign."

"Oh don't worry, I know better than to make fun of a Romulan. Though I've got to say you guys look better without the tattoos. Don't know why Nero had to have tattoos. All though honestly you guys need to get rid of the dumb ass helmets."

"Tell me about the tachyons! What did the Federation steal?" He slammed his hands on the table, and Maddy swallowed the lump in her throat, she rubbed her hands on her uniform, trying to wipe the sweat away. _Never let them see you sweat._

"Look, the Federation didn't steal your technology. They don't have anything like your technology, nor do they need it. And why would they? Their mission is peace and scientific exploration. As for the tachyons…well figure it out yourself." He stood over the table and hit her, knocking her out of her chair and onto the floor. She winced, her face stinging with the impact. The door slid open and the guard was given a clipped order in Romulan, and Maddy was hauled to her feet, and taken back to their cell. Lia was waiting anxiously.

"Your face, what did-" But the guard just grabbed her and took her to the lift. Lia knew better than to resist and went quietly. She was going to assume the commander got angry with Maddy's responses, and whacked her. When she appeared before him, however, he was standing calmly next to a servitor, his back to her. He spoke to her without turning around.

"Your friend made the mistake of not answering me…I expect you will not make that same mistake?" Lia lifted her chin and went over her options. Tachyons surrounded them because they travelled faster than light through time…what other explanation could she give that would satisfy this guy?

"I work in the deep space labs….we recently went through a stream of tachyon particles that we tried to isolate to test." The Romulan finally turned around and fixed her with a penetrating stare.

"Your friend was going on about marine biology." Lia cursed internally.

"She's scared. She has a degree in marine biology, after joining Starfleet she changed her focus."

"I see." He walked around the table so that he was standing next to her. Lia focused on keeping her breathing even. "Then why did Captain Kirk not tell me that, I wonder."

"I can't speak for the Captain, sir." He grabbed her by the back of the head and forced her head back to look at him.

"Maybe Kirk did not say such a thing because you are lying!" He gave a painful tug on her hair before releasing her.

"The Romulan Empire is not cruel; we simply want what was stolen from us. Now I have heard three different stories from three different sources, now I can only assume two of you are lying. Or is it that everyone in the Federation are idiots and none of you are capable of telling the truth? Where did you get our technology?" She glared at him.

"Did it ever occur to you that tachyons don't belong to you? Maybe the Federation is doing their own experiments!" He snarled and narrowed his eyes.

"Maybe. Maybe your Captain will be more willing to tell me the truth if he feels you are….threatened. I've heard that Kirk is very protective of his crew." He looked at her, seeking a reaction, but she kept her face blank. He was right, but Kirk had nothing, what would he do? The commander gave her a nasty smile and called the guard, who took her back to her cell. The commander followed behind them, his hands clasped behind his back, a cruel look on his face.

"Your Captain will be given twenty four hours to turn over the cloaking device, after that, I will send you back….in pieces."

"I hate this place! I hate it!" Barrows threw her bag to the ground and hit a fence post, collapsing next to it on the ground, sobbing. Rand stood slightly behind her, her own face lined with tears. They had visited the families of the girls they had replaced, preparing themselves by making a cover story, saying their daughters had been placed in the witness protection program after witnessing a violent crime in San Francisco. Needless to say, they had been upset. So upset that Barrows and Rand had been thrown out of their houses. Now they were walking along the road, trying to find a way back to San Francisco. The Midwest was _not_ their forte.

"Hello?" Rand answered her phone, her face brightening when she heard Jack Collins' voice on the other line. He wanted to reschedule their date.

"Uh, I'm stuck at my parents place. Tonia had to fly home, her father was getting….surgery. I went with her, and I'm stuck here." Her eyes widened as she listened to him on the other line.

"Oh we couldn't! But I-" Tonia looked at her questioningly and Rand put a hand over the phone.

"He wants us to come back on his frequent flier miles…do you know what those are? Tonia shrugged.

"But we need to get back, and if he wants to see you that badly…"

"I can't do that!" She turned her attention back to Jack. "Jack, I really couldn't do that. I don't have a way to pay you back." A smile grew on her face. "Well, I suppose…." She mimed writing and Tonia rummaged through her bag and found a pen and paper. Janice grabbed them and began scribbling something down. "Okay, okay. Thank you so much." She flipped the phone closed and beamed at Tonia.

"We need to get to the airport."

"Twenty four hours?" The Romulan commander just contacted the Enterprise, giving them coordinates for a rendezvous point. Kirk, Spock, Scotty, and McCoy were in the briefing room, going over their options.

"We have twenty four hours before they do anything to them…..so?" McCoy looked at Kirk expectantly. "What are we going to do?" Spock looked at Kirk.

"Have you thought about informing Starfleet, Captain?"

"Uhura is working on a summary to send to Starfleet, but it will be five hours before they receive it and another five before we receive a reply." Spock nodded.

"When in use, their cloaking device disguises energy the ship gives off, however, the tachyons emitted by our ensigns is very slightly different, if close enough to their ship, it might be possible for me to pick up their energy signatures through the Romulan cloak." Kirk's eyes widened in hope.

"Spock, can you?" Spock crossed his arms.

"It _is_ possible Captain, our scanners are more sophisticated, it is unlikely they noticed the difference."

"Then we must get their shield down in order to beam them over." Spock nodded.

"Do you have a plan, Captain?" Kirk smiled slowly.

"One that just might work."

Maddy was going over every single contingency plan she had ever come up with, trying to think of something that would get her and Lia out of this mess. Her plan to deflect the beams of the prison with a mirror was a no go, same with her plan to chat up the guards and befriend them. Romulans didn't seem to like her. Her plan to make the Romulan commander think she was insane and let her and Lia go because he didn't want to deal with crazies, resulted in a bruised cheek. Her attempt at making a prison shank fell apart when she realized she didn't have anything to make a shank with. Her plan to fake sick and have Lia attack the guards when they came in to check on her didn't get off the ground because Lia couldn't understand what Maddy was miming to her. The escape plan was not going well.

Lia scooted over to where she was sitting and they put their heads together in their cold cell, whispering so as not to be heard by their guards.

"With their cloaking device, they can't beam us out….and we're stuck here…." They were brainstorming their situation, trying to find a way off the Romulan ship. Maddy had tried befriending the guards, who stared at them like they were crazy. They had been frisked, so their communicators were a no go…and there was no way they could overpower their guards. At the end of the twenty four hour period, they were in serious trouble, and since neither of them wanted to be a helpless damsels in distress, they were trying to come up with a contingency plan in case the Enterprise couldn't rescue them. Lia snapped her fingers.

"Oh wait, that wouldn't work." They were getting tired, it had been nine hours since the clock started ticking down, but neither one wanted to fall asleep. Maddy sighed and nodded to Lia.

"I know, we can take turns sleeping. You can go first, I'll wake you up in a few hours." Lia looked over at the impassive guard, then at the hard floor.

"Okay, but this is going to be hard without a pillow." She crossed her arms and lay back against the wall, closing her eyes. Maddy sighed and looked at the dark ceiling, she could be on the Enterprise with McCoy right now…

"We have one hour left, Spock, start scanning." Spock nodded.

"Scanning." McCoy stood behind Kirk's chair, tense.

"Yellow alert, Mr. Sulu."

"Yellow alert, sir." McCoy grabbed Kirk's shoulder.

"Jim, are you sure this is a good idea, someone else can go instead."

"I have to be the one to go Bones. They'll be expecting a commander and Spock needs to be here." McCoy sighed and nodded. Kirk jumped up and headed down to the transporter room, where Scotty was waiting for him.

"Did you get it?" Scotty nodded and tucked in something into a tool belt. They were only waiting for the Romulan commander to contact them to beam Kirk over to start their plan. While they beamed Kirk to the commander, they were going to beam Scotty into the engineering room at the same time to shut down their cloaking device so that the Enterprise could beam them all back before launching a counter attack. He was armed with a phaser and was raring to go. Scotty felt responsible for those girls, and if anything happened to them, he'd never forgive himself. They waited tensely, Kirk very impatiently.

"Get up." Maddy and Lia rubbed their eyes and stood up, sore from sleeping on the cell floor. The guards had turned off the bars and were waiting for them with drawn phasers. The girls looked at each other in alarm. They walked close together and whispered as they were taken out of the brig toward the lift.

"What now?"

"Desperate times call for desperate measures." The brig was on the lowest deck near engineering, and they were about fifty meters from the lift when Lia suddenly went down, both guards stopping, suspicious. Maddy took the opportunity to go for her guard.

"Ha! She turned and tried to knee him in the crotch, but the guard was unaffected. Maddy stared at him, then at Lia.

"Dammit, he's wearing a cup!" Lia tried tripping her guard, who managed to pin her arms and hit the back of her head. Luckily, Lia had a hard head and was not knocked unconscious.

"Ow…." He slammed her against the wall as Maddy attempted to evade her guard, who grabbed her arm and swung her to the floor.

"You son of a bitch! Let me go! Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries! Let me go you monkey loving pointy eared wanna be Vulcan! That's right I know your secret ambition. I saw it once every Romulan wants to get in Spock's pants." She was trashing around wildly and was almost able to get out of his grip before he got fed up with her insults. He punched her in the stomach and slammed her back to the ground. She rolled over in pain and the guard took the opportunity to kick her in the back.

"You don't want to be doing that, sonny." Both girls turned their heads to the sound of Scotty's voice and saw him standing a few yards away from them, holding a phaser. Maddy rolled over on her back with a relieved smile.

"Oh thank God for the Scottish." Lia saw that if Scotty stunned one guard, then the other could stun him, so she punched the guard next to her in the back of the knee, giving Scotty the opportunity to stun both guards. Both girls sighed as Scotty rushed over to them and helped them up. The back of Lia's head was bleeding and there were ugly bruises on her wrists and arms, while Maddy had the wind knocked out of her and her face was bruised from when she hit the ground. "Come on lassies, you're going to help me shut off their cloaking device!" They hurried after him as quickly as they were able.

Meanwhile, Kirk had at the same time transported on their transporter pad, and was being escorted to the commander. His face betrayed nothing, but inside he was a mess. He was taken to the briefing room where the commander met him, he was a large, imposing looking Romulan. Kirk stiffly inclined his head.

"Commander."

"Let's skip the pleasantries Captain, have the cloaking device beamed over or your ensigns will suffer." Kirk stepped forward.

"We have no such device on the Enterprise, and I can prove it!" He said loudly, as the commander had begun to protest.

"Use your scanners on our ship, you will find no tachyon emissions. Not to mention commander, that if we did have a cloaking device, we would have used it by now!" The commander fixed a hard stare on Kirk, but nodded to a guard, who went and belayed his orders. They stared at each other tensely, waiting for the scanning to finish. The guard came over and whispered something in his ear.

"Then how is it Captain, that your two ensigns emit such a large amount of radiation?" Kirk knew the scanners found exactly what he knew they would…no tachyons emitted from the Enterprise if Lia and Maddy were not aboard.

"They are from a colony that was destroyed because of their experiments with tachyons. By the time they were found they were the only two alive. The tachyons you detected were radiation from the disaster. Since they can withstand a greater degree of radiation then my other scientists, they work in the deep space labs, where they isolate tachyon particles when we happen to cross them." The commander eyed him suspiciously, but could not deny the logic of his statement. The tachyon emissions were no longer on the Enterprise, and both women were searched when they came on this vessel. They carried nothing that could give off such radiation. Yet he had to consider the other opportunity he was presented with, the capture of the Enterprise.

"I am afraid that is not acceptable Captain. You see, even if that was the case and the Enterprise had not stolen our technology, which you Captain, have been inclined to do in the past…. I'm afraid I can't let such a prize as the Enterprise leave. It will be a glorious gift for the Empire to have the greatest ship in the Federation and the head of her captain given to them. You see, I have no choice but to kill you and take your ship. No hard feelings?" He grinned as he aimed a phaser at Kirk's chest. Kirk, however, was not all that surprised. Romulans were always trying to capture him, it was a bit trying. He raised his hands in the universal sign of surrender.

"I-" But he quickly kicked the phaser out of the commander's grip and punched him across the face. He spun around and judo chopped him across the back of the neck, twice. The commander slumped to the ground and Kirk grabbed the fallen phaser. He flipped open his communicator.

"Scotty, how long?"

"I'm finished Captain." Scotty sounded surprisingly elated, and Kirk briefly wondered why, before switching channels.

"Now, Mr. Spock." He felt the familiar pull of the transporter beam just as a guard beat the door down, saw his incapacitated commander, and fired at Kirk, too late. He was already on the Enterprise by the time the shot would have hit him.

He spared a brief glance to see that both Scotty and the girls were back before dashing over to the intercom and telling Spock to get the devil out of there. He relaxed slightly as the ship sped to warp seven, heading into Federation space. He quickly got up to the bridge after making sure Scotty got the girls to sick bay.

"One minute, Captain." Kirk sat tensely, watching the Romulan ship pursue them.

"Warp nine, Mr. Sulu." They increased speed and the bird of prey tried to get in phaser range.

"Come out of warp…now. Impulse power." They slowed suddenly and the Romulan ship slowed, about to fire, when several photon torpedoes hit their starboard side. After informing Starfleet of the situation, they had given the coordinates of the nearest Federation starship. They had been instructed to wait inside Federation space, where the Enterprise would rendezvous with them to trap the Romulan ship. It worked.

"Lock all phasers and fire at will." Kirk watched as both Federation ships fired at the bird of prey. The Romulans had no chance and knew it, but continued fighting. "Open a channel Lieutenant. This is the USS Enterprise. You are outgunned and running on impulse power. We are willing to offer assistance pending your immediate surrender." The Commander of the Romulan ship glowered at Kirk, wishing death upon him.

"We would sooner die, than accept aid from filthy Terrans. May you rot, Captain." The bird of prey fired their remaining torpedoes at the Enterprise, before the other Federation ship blasted them.

"Shields!" The torpedoes hit just as Sulu diverted energy to the shields. The bridge crew was thrown around from the impact. Power came back to visual in time to see the Romulan ship destroyed. Kirk nodded to Uhura.

"Send a report to Starfleet summarizing this encounter Lieutenant."

"Yes sir."

"Sulu, course heading to Starbase 12, warp factor 2."

"Course locked in, sir. Warp factor 2." Kirk nodded to Spock at his station and headed down to sick bay. He walked in and looked around, spotting Maddy talking to Chapel. She saw him and trotted over. He noted the bruises on her face, nodded to her.

"I'm going to need a full report, Ensign." Maddy saluted and looked for a datapad. Kirk wondered if anyone had told her she could simply dictate to the computer. He went over to where McCoy was fussing over Lia and cursing Romulans at the same time, as well as chewing out Lia for her attempted escape.

"Of course they were wearing them. It's standard. You both could have been killed! Blasted Romulans." He scanned something over her injuries and the pain lessened. "Wait here, I have to get something for your head." Kirk smiled as he watched a frustrated McCoy leave the room.

"He's like a mother hen sometimes." He turned his attention to Lia, and his smile flattered. He hadn't noticed the extent of her injuries before he left for the bridge.

"How are you feeling?" She shrugged.

"Could be worse." He sat down on her bed and took her by the shoulders.

"I was worried about you. I've never been angrier or more worried in my life." She didn't know what to say, so she let him continue. He gently brushed his hand against her cheek. "I don't know what I would have done if…" He trailed off, and before she could say anything, he kissed her. She was stunned at first but soon felt herself kissing him back, her fingers relaxing against his chest. His hands moved from her shoulders to her back, bringing her closer to him. He deepened the kiss and she let him. Unfortunately that was when McCoy came back into the room.

"Dammit Jim! I've told you not to do that to my patients. Look at the monitor, her heart rate's skyrocketing! Get out of here before you aggravate her injuries!" Kirk and Lia broke apart, and Lia blushed in mortification at being caught kissing Kirk in the sickbay. He sat up from the bed and grinned at the world in general.

"Alright Bones, you're the doctor." The grin was still on his face when he turned around and looked at Lia again. "I'm relieved you're safe." He smiled at her again, a soft genuine smile. And then he was gone. Lia continued to sit in stunned silence as McCoy continued examining her, muttering about Kirk. Maddy came in, having seen Kirk's expression, and looked at Lia's face, and McCoy still muttering under his breath. She pouted.

"You just had to interrupt them, didn't you! Darn, and I didn't even have a camera." Lia managed to glare in Maddy's general direction, still in a daze. She realized how so many women succumbed to his charms now, he was an _amazing_ kisser. McCoy finished examining her, and stood up and grabbed the still ranting Maddy. He gave her a quick kiss and walked out of the room. Maddy gaped.

"That's to shut you up!" He called after her and she blushed red.

"Ha ha, it happened to you too!" Maddy sat on the bed next to Lia's.

"Shut up." She grumbled. Yep, it was good to be back on the Enterprise.


	8. Heart Break Hotel

A/N: To MissScarletWolf, Mrs. PavelChekov, and Kitty243 thank you so much for your reviews on the last chapter. They are much appreciated, and make our days.

Heart Break Hotel

"For we're jolly good fellows. For we're jolly good felloooows. Which no Romulan could destroy." Lia and Maddy swayed back and forth, their beer mugs spilling over with the motion. They had reached Starbase 12 four hours ago, and after receiving clearance, went down and proceeded to find the closest bar and celebrate their brilliant escape from the Romulans.

"Another round barkeep!" Maddy slammed her mug on the counter and swayed slightly trying to regain her balance.

"You know what's great?"

"This beer?"

"Yes, but no."

"Than what?"

"Spock's butt!" Lia giggled over her beer and slumped against the counter top. "I want popcorn."

"Oh my gosh, let's get some." They finished their drinks and were going to cross the dance floor, except that they got grabbed by a wildly dancing Andorian so they began dancing to the odd alien music instead. They promptly forgot about popcorn and started dancing, 21st century style. Lia started sobering up and went back over to the bar and sat down. She ordered a coffee and sipped it slowly, watching Maddy go into a waltz with the Andorian. It had been three days since they got off the Romulan ship, and Lia and Maddy had gotten the next week off from their duties to recover from their ordeal. Kirk had stopped by every day, and she had kissed him only once since he came to see her in sick bay. She really needed to explain that she didn't want to be a notch in his bedpost. But she was starting to really like him, he was dashing, charming, sweet and extremely charismatic.

Maddy sat down next to Lia and ordered another drink.

"Did you know Andorians can get really handsy?" She took a sip of her drink and looked at Lia. She slammed her drink suddenly and grinned like a maniac. "I know that look!" Lia looked up startled from her ministrations.

"What look?"

"That look that was on your face just now." She got a sly grin on her face. "You were thinking about Kirk."

"I was not!" Lia was obviously flustered.

"Oh yes you were. You were totally thinking about him just now!"

"No, I wasn't."

"Aw, Lia its okay that you're in love, after all he is a very dashing starship captain." Maddy wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

"I'm not in love with him, so be quiet."

"…Can I be the maid of honor at your wedding?" Lia gave her friend one nasty glare before standing up.

"I'm going back to the ship."

"To see your captain?"

"Shut up." She left the bar and Maddy, who was still making jokes at her expense.

Lia went to the transport room and nodded at the technician. The Enterprise's coordinates were in the system, they just needed to present their identification cards and be beamed aboard. She flashed her card and walked over to the transport pads. She felt like there were butterflies in her stomach and then suddenly she appeared on the Enterprise. She headed toward her room and flopped onto her bed. It was too early to be drinking, she was glad no one on the Enterprise had been at that bar, but her and Maddy always celebrated things by drinking, and the women here were a bit more sophisticated. At least, she thought so. She programmed the alarm on her clock to go off in forty five minutes and closed her eyes. She'd take a short nap, then see what shenanigans Maddy had gotten herself into in her absence.

Meanwhile, Maddy swaggered out of the bar, not quite wasted, but still pretty far gone. She headed into the first store she saw and was promptly hailed by a saleswoman.

"Oh, this would look divine on you! What is your size, you simply must try it on." Maddy was steered toward the dressing room with a stack of odd looking clothing. She looked at it and shrugged.

"Okay!" This lead to a modeling show, as they had a small raised platform similar to a catwalk lined with mirrors for people trying on clothes. Maddy had on a yellow body suit with a large blue boa and a tall top hat and the saleswoman gushed.

"It's so you!" Maddy nodded, it really was. She strutted on the catwalk and gained an audience, they began cheering her on to show off more outfits. She complied.

Forty five minutes later Lia was waking up from her nap. She ran a brush through her hair and headed to the lift, intending to find Maddy. She didn't need to go far. The lift doors opened to show Maddy in a purple jumper with green knee socks, a orange sombrero, and yellow gloves. Lia stared. Maddy squinted at her.

"The funny people in the shop gave me this for my show! Isn't it great?" Lia's internal alarm went off at 'show'. What had Maddy got into in her absence?

"You're still a bit buzzed."

"Lil' bit." The lift stopped and Maddy headed toward sick bay. Lia thought about stopping her but decided against it. She'd learn her lesson this way. She decided to see if she could convince Chekov to go shopping with her when the lift stopped and Kirk entered. She tried to ignore the butterflies that suddenly made an appearance in her stomach and smiled at him.

"Captain." He gave her his mysterious smile that usually meant he had something planned and took her hand.

"I was thinking that if you weren't busy tonight I could show you around the Starbase. There are a few sights off the beaten track you might find enjoyable." Oh boy, he was asking her out on a date! Damn she could use some comedic relief, where was Maddy when you needed her?

"I think I'm free." He gave her what she and Maddy had dubbed his 'seducing smile' and got off the lift when it stopped.

"Then I'll see you tonight." He said, lowering his voice when an engineer walked past. She smiled and the doors closed. She leaned back against the wall and got a dreamy look on her face, before she snapped to attention. If Maddy found out she had a date with Kirk she'd never hear the end of it. She had to be careful and keep this a secret, maybe she could convince Kirk to meet her at a secret a rendezvous point. She dismissed that idea immediately, he would get the wrong idea if she suggested something like that. She was just going to have to be sneaky to get through this date without Maddy finding out.

Tonia sat in a local coffee shop, sipping coffee and reading a newspaper that was left on the table. There was something to be said for the coffee in this time, it was delicious. She was going wait for Janice to come back to the studio apartment Jack Collins had helped them rent before going to get coffee, but she never came home last night. She smiled to herself as she turned the page. She was looking through the classifieds looking for a job. Unfortunately the degree she had didn't exist yet, and that was making job searching very difficult. She circled another ad and sighed. She had begun to brighten since getting stuck here. It did have its perks, after all. Her phone vibrated and she flipped it open.

"Hello?" She smiled as she heard Janice exclaim excitedly on the other end. "You got a job? Where?" Janice had gotten a position at a call center. It wasn't exactly glamorous, but it had good benefits, and they both wanted something to do. Jack Collins had been a great help. He was completely enamored with Janice, and bought their stories of being jobless due to the recession, and had been helping them get back on their feet. Janice, for her part, was rather flattered with the attention, and often had her head in the clouds daydreaming. It had been annoying at first, but Tonia realized she had just been trying to find a connection to this place so that she could form a life here. And she needed to do the same thing.

"Janice? I've got to go, I'll call you later." She dialed the number from the newspaper ad and waited while it rang. "Hello? I'm calling about your ad in the classifieds….."

Maddy, after sleeping off the effects of her drinks, went to find Lia. It was about time they did some shopping, she was excited when she found out they were actually getting paid for working aboard the Enterprise. And besides wanting to go shopping she had to return her drunken purchases, which in the light of soberness did not look good at all, except for the sombrero she was keeping that. She entered Lia's room without knocking.

"Lia! Time to shop till we drop! Lia?" She walked around Lia's room, trying to find her missing compadre. "Lia?" Shrugging, she sat on Lia's bed and waited. She didn't have to wait long, Lia came in holding a pile of clothing, humming the 'I Dream of Jeannie' theme song.

"I always wanted her outfit." Lia finally noticed Maddy sitting on her bed and screamed. She narrowed her eyes at Maddy.

"How did you get in here?"

"Scotty showed me how to bypass the locks."

"He can do that?" Maddy nodded enthusiastically.

"Yeah...sooo what's with the clothes?" She took the pile of clothes out of Lia's hand and examined them, she held a green dress up. "You know Lia you don't have to get this dressed up to go shopping with me. Though I do appreciate the thought." Lia gave her a look as she came up with an excuse.

"I'm just expanding my wardrobe. All I had was the stuff we got from the replicator, so I got some stuff from a couple shops." Maddy pouted.

"You went shopping without me?"

"You were drunk."

"Oh yeah. Does that mean we're not going shopping?"

"Yes, now get out, unless you want me to change in front of you."

"Fine, I'm going, I'm going." She held her hands up in defeat and left Lia alone in her room.

Two hours later Maddy was with Scotty in engineering. She had wandered down in search of something to alleviate her boredom. Lia had disappeared, McCoy was overseeing some medical shipments, and Sulu was on duty. She found Scotty in front of a control panel, running diagnostics. She waved and he beckoned her over.

"Lass! What brings you down here?" She shrugged and leaned against the console.

"Boredom, when do you get off duty?" He had promised to teach her a card game in the rec room next time he was free. Scotty glanced at the time.

"In...twenty minutes lass. While you're here, why don't I give you a tour?" She smiled in agreement and he promptly started babbling about the warp engines. Scotty was very proud of his department, and even though she didn't understand half of what he was saying, she smiled and nodded along anyway.

"Aye, too bad Lia is out with our Captain, I'm sure she'd enjoy seeing this." Maddy blinked and stared at Scotty.

"Excuse me?" Scotty just kept talking, unaware of her sudden interest.

"Oh, I was just saying that if Lia wasn't out with the Captain, then she could be here with us, I sure would like to show her the dilithium crystal chamber." Maddy's mouth opened, then closed again. She cleared her throat.

"I'm sure she would." Lia had been getting ready for a date! A date! With Kirk! And she hadn't told her! Oh, she was going to get it...

"Say Scotty, instead of playing cards when you get off do you want to do something else?"

Lia quickly glanced over her shoulder, trying not to look conspicuous.

"Is something wrong?" She looked over at Kirk and gave her biggest fake smile.

"No, nothing's wrong." '_Except for the fact that Maddy will never let me live this date down, and if you keeping smiling like that, I'm going to jump your bones before the end of the night.' _

"That's good. I'd thought I'd show you my favorite restaurant on the base."

"Sounds nice." He lead her to the transporter and they beamed down she felt the familiar butterflies in her stomach and they appeared on the Starbase. She had seen it earlier that day, but with the glass ceiling it was spectacular at night. There were a million stars out, and two moons orbiting, one barely in view over the horizon, the other had already risen. It was gorgeous. Kirk saw her gaze and smiled and took her arm and linked it with his own.

"This way." He led her through the winding hallways, past all the shops and perusing customers, to a small little alcove where a black door with a brass knocker waited. Kirk went up and knocked twice, and a panel at eye level opened and a pair of violet eyes appeared.

"Password?" Kirk said something in a language Lia didn't recognize, but the door keep obviously did, and he took her hand again and they went through the door to a little hallway. The door keep, some alien species she wasn't familiar with, led them to another door, which a bouncer opened. It revealed a dark room with large plush red booths and candles lighting the room. A string quartet played in the corner, and several people waltzed on the dance floor. It looked completely out of place with the sparce furnishings and cold metal of the rest of the starbase. She looked questioningly at him as they were led to a booth in the corner where they sat and were given a small menu full of different alcoholic drinks. The booth was ridiculously soft, and Lia looked around in interest, everyone here was well dressed and talking quietly. She looked at Kirk's face to see him studying her.

"What is this place?" He leaned back and smiled.

"An...exclusive little establishment, my favorite here. It serves the best Rigellian wine in the system." He ordered a bottle and the waiter poured them two glasses and put the bottle in an ice bucket.

"A Federation starbase can do that?"

"Uh...strictly speaking, no." She took a sip of wine. It was good.

"I'm okay with that." He gave her his 'seducing smile' and she took another sip of wine to keep the butterflies in her stomach at bay.

Lia woke up with a groan, her head hurt and she was nauseous. She made a mental note to remember Rigellian wine was a lot stronger than the stuff she was used to. She looked at where her clock was supposed to be and was confused when it wasn't there. Actually nothing was where it was supposed to be. Her eyes widened when she realized this wasn't her room. She made a move to get up but something was holding her back. She looked down and there was an arm wrapped around her waist. She looked at it in mild horror was she looked at whose arm it was. James T Kirk's. Why was she not surprised? She vaguely remembered Kirk asking her to dance and him being a _very _good dancer. She remembered him dipping her and giving her a sexy smile before kissing her. Now she was in his bed. This wasn't in the plan. Frick she was never going to hear the end of this. She needed to leave now. Unfortunately Kirk had other ideas. The arm tightened around her waist pulling her back to the bed. Kirk nuzzled her hair.

"Good morning." Oh crap. This wasn't good. He was totally invading her personal space.

"Uh hi?" She tried to keep her voice as normal as possible, hoping he wouldn't detect the apprehension in her voice or the excitement? What the heck what was she excited about? Okay he was really sexy, especially when his voice was husky like that. No! What was she thinking? He didn't seem to notice he simply hovered over her for a second before giving her a quick kiss and telling her he needed to get to the bridge. She felt herself go from nervous to confused to angry. That was it? He was just dismissing her? Suddenly the anger changed again, as Kirk left for the bathroom. She knew this was going to happen! She got dressed as quickly as possible and fled Kirk's room, only to run into the last person she wanted to see at the moment. Maddy.

"Ha! I knew it! I knew it! You totally slept with him! I am so right! I wish I had confetti to throw right now." She stopped her gloating when she noticed the look on Lia's face. "What's wrong? What did he do?" Lia marched past her and went to her room. Maddy following a few steps behind. They both entered Lia's room, as soon as the door was closed Lia punched the wall, trying to get rid of some of her anger. Maddy watched on confused.

"What did he do?"

"He just-! He just dismissed me! I knew this was going to happen!" Lia slumped against her bed. "He used me. He got what he wanted and now he doesn't care." Maddy sat down next to her.

"You really like him."

"It didn't mean anything to him." Lia felt pinpricks at her eyes. "He's a jackass. At least when you slept with McCoy he kept liking you." Maddy brought her knees in close to her.

"I haven't slept with him." Lia let out a frustrated cry.

"You mean I slept with someone before you did? But you spend all your time with him. Dammit!" Maddy shrugged and bit her lip.

"We just talk about medical advancements. I don't think he likes me as much as I like him." Lia felt like punching something.

"Men from the future suck." Maddy let her friend vent, ignoring the angry tears on Lia's face. She wouldn't want her to mention them.

"Go take a shower and I'll get coffee and donuts. Donuts with frosting and sprinkles." When in doubt fix things with sweets. Lia nodded and went to take a shower. Maddy stayed just long enough to hear the shower start before she was out the door and making her way to the bridge. She stepped out of the lift and marched over to the captain's chair and gave Kirk the nastiest glare she could muster.

"I need to talk to you." Kirk just looked at her.

"Ensign."

"Don't even. Kirk don't even. Get in the lift." Kirk looked at the angered girl and followed her. The lift door closed and Maddy slapped him.

"You jackass! I always liked you in the show! It was always amusing to see you get the girl, but I guess it never occurred to me that you just drop them because the episodes never connected. You're a stupid jerk! How dare you sleep with her then drop her! I don't care if you're James T Kirk or William Shatner or TJ Hooker. You don't do that!"

"What are you talking about?"

"She actually likes you Kirk and you had to go and do that! I wanted you two to get together I thought you would be good for each other, but no I was wrong. How could you sleep with her then just dump her?"

"Lia?"

"No Mary Queen of Scotts. Yes Lia!"

"Nothing of the sort happened."

"Really then why is she currently in her room crying because you slept with her than dismissed her like some common whore?"

"She's crying?"

"Quick aren't you? Is that how you made captain so fast?" Kirk grabbed her shoulders to keep her from hitting him again and to make her listen.

"That isn't what happened. I care about her. I really care about her. Why would she think she wasn't special to me?"

"Because everyone knows your history with women." Kirk fought off a groan. He could tell something was wrong with Lia this morning, he thought giving her her space would be the best course of action. He didn't mean to make it seem like he didn't care.

"Is she still in her room?" Some of Maddy's anger dissipated, Kirk was actually sorry.

"Yeah I was going to get coffee and donuts and we were going to complain about dumb boys."

"I need to apologize to her." Maddy gave him a look but then relented, he _did _care about Lia.

"Yeah you do, but don't worry just explain everything and tell her you're sorry. But just for the record in our time at least having breakfast is expected even if it's a one night stand."

"She's not. She's special." Maddy made a shooing motion.

"Then go fix this." He would have too, had not the alarms started going off. Kirk rushed back to the bridge, Maddy behind him.

"Mr. Spock, report." Spock looked up from his view screen.

"We've entered a nebula Captain, we will experience some turbulence for the next 21.55 hours." Kirk nodded.

"Thank you Mr. Spock, Sulu, shields-" But at that moment the lights on the bridge went out. Going through nebulas was tricky business, as they tended to mess with the power couplings. The backup power kicked in and everything turned back on. Kirk hit a button on his console.

"All decks, report." Maddy listened as the decks reported in, Lia's was still without power. She gave Kirk one last nasty look and left the bridge to head to the med bay. Maybe McCoy could use some company. Kirk watched her go and gave Spock the conn. he needed to go see a certain physicist...

"Sorry!" Maddy ran into a random red shirt as she navigated her way to sick bay. This deck was still without power, and everyone was running around trying fix things and get backup generators working. She entered sick bay to see a madhouse. She was about to turn around and go back to her room when Chapel caught sight of her.

"Madeleine! Please, can you come over here and hold this?" She was talking about a small light she was holding over a man's face. Maddy shrugged and nodded. This led to her helping Chapel out with several patients that fell off stairs and injured themselves during the turbulence. Chapel had declared her a 'nurse for a day' and she followed her around, and caught sight of McCoy swearing over a red shirt. Apparently, he had been doing a minor surgery when the black out occurred. She thought about waving at him, but seeing the angered look on his face, decided to greet him later. After Chapel let her go.

Meanwhile, Li had showered, cried in said shower, and got dressed. Her eyes were still red, but besides that, you couldn't tell she'd been upset. Good, she had to go on shift in an hour. She was just putting up her hair when her door chime went off. Figuring it was Maddy, she went ahead and pushed the button on the wall that opened the door. It was Kirk. He was holding a box of donuts. She thought about shutting the door on him but she noticed they were glazed donuts, her favorite. She decided to let him in, she was hungry after all. She stepped to the side, letting him come into the room.

"Hello."

"Hi." She fidgeted. What was he doing here? He was giving her that look again, and she felt the butterflies in her stomach again despite her protests. He set the box of donuts down and stepped closer to her.

"...I think we had a misunderstanding this morning." She didn't say anything and let him go on. "I never meant to make it seem as Maddy said, 'a one night stand'. You're unlike any woman I've ever met before. You're very important to me and I never wanted to make it seem like you weren't." Ah, so that explained the doughnuts. He had talked to Maddy. She really hoped she hadn't made a scene.

"…..Okay." She really didn't know how to respond to that, no one had ever said anything like that to her before. She was saved from responding when he moved in and kissed her gently. She tried to hold back the blush on her face and he gave her his 'you know you can't resist me' look again. She sighed softly.

"I forgive you." His eyes lit up and she bit her lip to keep from smiling, she didn't want to let him off the hook that quickly.

"I need to get back to the bridge, will I see you later?" She smiled at him lightly.

"We'll see." The door shut and she smiled, inwardly congratulating herself on playing hard to get. He deserved that, after all. Best to keep him guessing for awhile.

"Thank you Maddy, I'll get the Doctor to talk to your head of department, oh, there you are." Chapel had been telling Maddy she would get her excused from her duties today for helping her, when McCoy finally came out of the surgery room, looking the worse for wear.

"Madeleine, Nurse?" He looked at Chapel questioningly, knowing Maddy was supposed to be on duty.

"Sorry Doctor, she came in earlier and helped me out with the mess in here, can you talk to her head of department?" McCoy nodded, and smiled gratefully at Maddy, who tried not to beam back.

"Of course." Chapel left and Maddy turned to the door when McCoy grabbed her arm.

"Meet me here tonight, around eight." Maddy nodded and left, confused. Then it hit her, it was a date! She did a happy dance in the middle of the hall and scared several red shirts, before leaping toward the lift. Then it hit her again. She had a date and she had nothing to wear! It was a good thing Lia ended up on the Enterprise with her, she would help her get ready for her date. Then it hit her a third time.

"Oh crap." She left Lia alone and depressed while she was in the med bay. "That's not good." She was going to need to get Lia lots of donuts to make up for this. She hoped Kirk had explained everything.

She knocked on Lia's door holding a box of sprinkled donuts spelling out the word 'Oops'. She assumed that would fix everything. The door opened and she happily greeted Lia with her apologetic donuts.

"Hello. Funny thing happened to me on the way to deck 4..."

"Did you make a scene?" Maddy paused in her explanations and gave Lia a confused look.

"Huh?" Lia took the box from Maddy's hands and ate the one of the donuts, making it spell ops.

"I know you talked to Kirk. Did you cause a scene on the bridge?" Maddy shook her head and ate the second O.

"No. I hit him though. We were in the lift when I did, no worries I didn't emasculate anyone." Lia munched on her donut.

"Thanks." Maddy smiled knowing it was a thanks for the donut and for fixing Kirk and Lia, or at least she assumed it was.

"So is everything okay between the two of you?"

"Yeah he explained and I forgave him. We're doing something later tonight."

"Oh my gosh! That's crazy! I've got a date with McCoy later too!"

"You always do stuff with Bones. How is this different?"

"Cause I got a sexy smile this time." Lia just stared blankly at her. "I'm excited don't take this from me...Let's get ready together! It can be like how we used to get ready for dances at each other's houses!" Another blank stare. "You owe me I didn't get to be part of yours and Kirk's first date. Let's get gussied up!" Lia took another donut.

"Okay."

"Yay!" She set the donuts down and pulled out every outfit Lia owned and every piece of makeup and jewelry. "You first." While Maddy went through her clothes, Lia tried to turn on dancing music. All she found was odd alien pop music, which they decided would work. With that blaring in the background, they looked at Lia's paltry selection of outfits. Maddy sighed.

"We really need to go shopping."

"You already did." She was referring to all the clothes she bought at the Starbase. Maddy rubbed her head.

"Yeah yeah, but seriously, you already wore this one." She pointed to the wrinkled green dress, which Lia promptly threw down her laundry chute. It returned a few minutes later, perfectly washed and pressed. They stared.

"That is just awesome, I wish we had those back home."

"Yeah..." They stopped being mesmerized by quickly washed clothes and looked at the rest of Lia's clothes. There were no more dresses or skirts.

"You can not wear pants, nobody wore pants, okay, almost nobody." She was referring to the show, Lia nodded.

"Okay, maybe we can get something from the replicator?"

"Oh my gosh let's ask Chapel!" Lia tried to stop her, Chapel would just try to make her put her hair up and wear too much makeup, but she was too late. Maddy was already next to the comm. and talking to Christine, who like Maddy, was sounding much too excited.

"She'll be here in a minute. You should wear green again. Oh, do a smoky eye. No one in the future does the smoky eye look, it's just bright colors and odd patterns."

"I don't like that much eyeshadow."

"Do it!" Lia relented.

"Fine but I get to decide how you do your makeup." By the time Lia was done with her makeup Chapel had come and her and Maddy were taking turns trying to decide what Lia should wear. In the end Lia's hair was up, her eyes were smoky and she was in a green shimmery dress that ended just below her knees.

Maddy drew in a sharp breath and spoke in a very poor over done southern accent. "Well I do declare Miss Acacia you are just as pretty as a magnolia tree in June."

"I don't think that's the right expression."

"Psh who cares. You look hot." Lia looked at herself in the mirror, she did look pretty awesome.

"Chapel you do great work."

"Hey I helped."

"You wanted me to wear a large floral patterned sheer dress."

"I'm pretty sure that's what they wear in the future." Chapel clapped her hands and grinned at Maddy.

"Your turn." Uh oh. Lia looked like she was ready for pay back. They surrounded Maddy and Christine held up different dresses, in shades of blue, orange, and purple, while Lia stuck her in the eye with a mascara wand.

"Ow!"

"Oops." Maddy grumbled while Lia did her makeup, praying it wasn't anything too ridiculous, while Christine decided on a dress. It was a purple kimono style dress with blue trim, which Lia matched with smoky blue eyeliner. Christine and Lia stood back, and nodded at each other.

"We're geniuses."

"Yes we are, goodness, it's almost eight, Maddy, you better hurry." Maddy eeped and waded through the piles of clothes on the floor to get to the door. She succeeded and Christine simply gracefully walked over them. They waved to Lia and left, leaving her to clean up the mess. She sighed and began picking up clothes and makeup off the floor. She didn't pay any attention when the door swished open, thinking that it was Chapel coming to pick up something she forgot.

"Hey."

"Good evening." She dropped the things in her hand and spun around to see Kirk against the wall giving her his seducing smile.

"You look beautiful."

"Thank you. You look good too." He was in what Maddy liked referring to as 'Kirk's infamous V-neck' it was odd to see Kirk in it, but somehow, Lia decided he could pull it off, and she liked it. He held his arm out for her.

"Shall we." She nodded and took his arm and for what might have been the first time in her life realized she could look down her date's top. She had to bite her lip to keep from laughing as he led her to the lift.

"Where are we going?" He just smiled at her.

"You'll see." She swooned slightly when he winked at her. The lift finally stopped and Kirk escorted her out. They stopped in front of a door, and Lia only had enough time to register that it was his door before he ushered her inside. She was going to give him a speech about how he needed to buy her dinner first, but the sight in front of her stopped her. Kirk had set up a small table with candles and two plates and wine glasses. The lights in his room were darkened and music was softly playing. Wow he was good.

"I thought we could stay in." She smiled as he pulled out her chair and poured her a glass of wine.

"Staying in's good." They clinked glasses and Lia's butterflies returned full force.

"Don't look stupid, don't look stupid, okay." Maddy took a deep breath and entered the med bay to see...nothing. She blinked.

"Hello?" She poked around for a minute when she heard the door slide open. She turned around to see a surprised McCoy, who smiled when he caught sight of her.

"Madeleine." She went over to him and they locked arms and he led her to the lift. They went down several floors to a hallway she had never seen before. They entered what she realized was his room and he left her at the door and grabbed a book off his bookshelf.

"There, this is what I wanted. I want you to read this when you have the time, you have the makings of a great clinical biologist." Clinical biologist?

"Huh?"

"Chapel was telling me how well you did in the sickbay today. I think you missed your calling." That's why he asked her to meet him? He noticed the look on her face. "Something wrong?" She forced herself to brighten.

"No! No. Thank you for the book, I'll read it as soon as I get a chance. Anything else?" She just wanted to go back to her room and die now.

"No. I just want you to think about the clinical biologist path." She nodded.

"Sure! Sure no problem. I should be going." She needed to get out of this stupid dress and makeup. She felt like an idiot. It wasn't a date, it was career counseling. She left as quickly as she could while still trying to make it look casual. Lia was right, boys from the future suck. No that wasn't it. She was just dense and hopeful and an idiot. She pushed the button for the lift and waited, once it opened she didn't even look inside before she started banging her head against the wall.

"Stupid. Stupid. Stupid."

"Miss Flint, is it your intention to damage your cranium?" She screamed and spun around. Spock merely raised an eyebrow. She pointed at him and mouthed wordlessly and then stamped her foot.

"Why are you always here?" She then got off the lift while Spock stared at her retreating back, silently wondering about her sanity. She ran down the hall to her room, locked it with a voice-recognition pattern, and jumped onto her bed, tears beginning to form in her eyes. Why did this have to happen? She was taken to a place she thought was a dream come true, only to have her dream man ignorantly reject her? It wasn't fair. She got off the bed and in a huff took off her dress, frustratedly throwing it across the room before changing into her one pair of jeans and a black t-shirt. At least she could be comfortable while she was miserable. She tugged at her hair and put it up before wiping her eye makeup off.

"I'm an idiot." She sat back down against her bed and opened the book McCoy gave her. The sooner she got through it the better.

Spock walked down the hall to his room in the officer's quarters when he passed McCoy, who had a slight frown on his face. He decided to ask him a question.

"Doctor, I have a query for you. Is it normal for humans to smash their head against the wall in times of stress?" McCoy snapped out of his reverie and stared at Spock.

"Who was smashing their head against the wall?"

"Miss Madeleine, in the lift, I was curious if that was normal behavior for hu-" But McCoy rushed off toward the lift, leaving Spock standing in the hall. He raised an eyebrow.

"Fascinating."

"I would like to propose a toast." Kirk smiled and held his glass out. "To tachyons and ion storms for bringing you into my life." Lia was torn between swooning, kissing him, laughing, and being amazed at the amount of corny sentiment Kirk seemed to come up with. Well, she guessed it was true sentiment, judging from the look in Kirk's eyes. She held her glass up.

"To ion storms." And fandom dreams coming true. Not even her fandom dream, who would've known it would've turned out so well. They drank and Kirk rose and held out his hand. She took it and he led her to the middle of the room, where he pulled her close and wound one arm around her waist, the other around her back. She leaned against him and they swayed to the soft music playing in the background. No, not her fandom dream, but still one hell of a good one.

Maddy made a note on a padd next to her. She wished plain notebooks were still common, she missed taking notes in notebooks. She marked something that was interesting in the book McCoy lent her, and was taking several notes about it in hopes it would get her mind off the doctor. It didn't.

"Should have just had a crush on a normal person like normal people. Be a lot less embarrassing." She heard a knock on her door and debated whether or not to answer it.

"Madeline?" Crap it was McCoy. What did she do? She spoke her password, and the door slid open, then she remembered she wasn't in makeup and debated sending him back out.

"Uh, hi?" He strode over and put his hands on her head, turning her and examining her forehead closely. "What are you doing?" He gave her a sharp look.

"Spock told me you were banging your head on walls, want to explain that to me?" She narrowed her eyes. Darn tattletale.

"Nothing, it was nothing." His blue eyes pierced her and she looked away, unable to keep eye contact. He finally sighed and wrapped his arms around her.

"If something is bothering you, I want to know what it is." Maddy froze in his embrace. "I care about you, and I don't want you hurting yourself."

"I wasn't hurting myself, I was banging my head against the wall." McCoy sent her an angry doctor look. "Which I won't be doing anymore."

"Good." He leaned in like he was about to kiss her but she pulled away. She didn't feel like being humiliated a second time tonight. Or was it going on three?

"Maddy?" He turned her toward him and he sighed in frustration. "Why won't you tell me what's wrong?" She bit her lip.

"I just-I don't know." He gave her a soft smile and pressed a soft kiss to her lips.

"Well, whenever you want to talk about it, know that I'm here for you, alright?" She nodded mutely, stunned, and he wished her goodnight and left her room. She flopped back onto her bed.

"Men."

Lia woke up in the same position she did the day before, slightly confused and with Kirk's arm around her waist.

"How does this keep happening?" He was _way _too good at being seductive, she decided. She felt him stirring and once again he pulled himself close and nuzzled her neck before telling her good morning and getting up. Only this time he didn't leave, he walked over to the replicator and brought over two cups of coffee and two plates of eggs and toast.

"I've been informed that having breakfast with you is very important." She laughed lightly and sipped her coffee, thankful this morning was better than the last.


	9. Romance and Rivalries

A/N: Dear Mrs. PavelChekov, thank you for being the only one to review the last chapter. It was greatly appreciated and absolved the fear that no one actually liked Kirk and Lia as a couple. So, thank you for your kind review.

PS: Love the new name.

Romance and Rivalries

Lia was on cloud-nine. It had been two weeks since she let Kirk woo her and she had been in a blissful cloud of Kirkness ever since. They would spend their free time together and more often than not she would wake up in Kirk's bed. She still wasn't sure how he kept managing that, but she stopped caring around the third time. He was possibly the sweetest, most charming man she'd ever dated and she could barely wait for her shift to end so that they could spend time together. Yes, she was falling and falling hard.

Maddy, on the other hand, had been avoiding McCoy like the plague. She wasn't really sure where they stood and she was still too embarrassed and ashamed to face him, and with Lia smitten and Chapel occupying the same space as McCoy, she ended up spending most of her free time with Sulu or else studying alone in her room. Lia had tried setting them up in romance-inducing situations, but it always ended with Maddy finding some excuse to leave. McCoy was starting to get down himself and Lia was at her wits end. How did she get these two together? She and Maddy were currently in the rec room, playing a tactical game with Lia winning, when she stood up.

"You're becoming a teenage angst stereotype!" Maddy looked up from where she was moving her battle ship.

"Huh?"

"You're turning into a sappy stupid annoying teenage romance angst stereotype."

"No I'm not."

"Yes you are. You avoid Bones like crazy for absolutely no reason."

"I do not."

"You're a stereotype. The annoying kind."

"You're annoying an annoying teenage romance stereotype with the way you and Kirk are going on."

"What Jim and I do in our spare time..."

"Ooo Jim?" Lia was determined not be to embarrassed.

"Yes Jim, it's my sexy time name for him." That effectively shut Maddy up for the moment, but only for a moment.

"...Shouldn't it be Captain Love?" Lia glared at her and crossed her arms.

"If that's what you want to call him go ahead, though I don't he'll appreciate it." Maddy stood up too.

"Well, nothing is going right! I don't know what to do, okay?" She looked down and Lia sighed and pulled her out of the room. They walked down the hall toward the lift and Lia's communicator beeped.

"Oh, I have to go on shift now, look, we'll talk later, okay?" Maddy nodded sullenly and headed toward her room.

-/-

Tonia was determined not to fidget. Fidgeting was not becoming in a Starfleet yeoman. But all the same she was fighting the urge as she sat in a reception area, waiting for her name to be called so that she could interview for a job. She was battling a wave of emotions, on one hand she was excited about finally having something to do and to take her mind off things, but on the other hand she hated that she was going to have to get a job because it meant admitting that her and Janice would never be able to go home. No, she resolved not to think about that now.

"Barrows?" She got up and smoothed her skirt before following the woman into an office, where she sat down. She took a breath let it out slowly. Here goes nothing.

Twenty minutes later she was walking out the door with a smile on her face. She had a job! She couldn't wait to tell Janice, she grabbed the cell phone out of her bag and dialed her number.

"Janice? Guess what-"

-/-

Lia was busy trying to balance three coffee cups in her arms as she left the rec room. Working on the Enterprise wasn't all that different from working anywhere else if outer space and aliens were factored out. It was almost like her first internship, lots of learning and getting things for the higher ups, actually it was exactly like her first internship considering the fact she had just been sent on a coffee run.

"They need to get synthesizers in the physics department." She tried very carefully to make it to the lift without having coffee explode on her.

"Need some help?" There was that sexy voice again.

"Captain!" He appeared from behind her and took two of the cups.

"Jim, remember." She fought the blush as she was yet again the recipient of a sexy Kirk smile.

"Jim. Thanks." He smiled at her and leaned close, kissing her as the lift hissed open. Sparks were felt in her finger tips and toes. Jim was amazing and he was looking at her with that look again and the butterflies were doing an 10K in her stomach and... someone was clearing their throat? They broke apart and found Spock looking at them with one eyebrow raised. Lia stared. Kirk just got on the lift and began talking to Spock like nothing happened. Well, at least he could handle embarrassing moments. Actually, thinking back on the show, those moments were pretty common. She felt a momentary pang of jealousy but brushed it away as the lift stopped. Spock was heading to the chem department, so he took the two cups Kirk was holding for her, as he was headed for the bridge, and followed Lia down the hall.

"Um...I'm sorry about that. I don't know if it's against Starfleet regulations, I don't think it is, but we shouldn't have been doing that where anyone could see. I'm sorry if I-well I guess I can't embarrass you." She felt like she was trying to explain to her mother why she caught her kissing her boyfriend.

"There is no Starfleet regulation that prohibits two members from pursuing such things. And I very much doubt the Captain would listen if there were one."

"Yeah, he's a bit of a slut." Lia shut her mouth in horror and Spock merely raised an eyebrow.

"That is a-joke?" He asked questioningly. Lia almost sighed in relief.

"Yeah, ha ha." They reached the physics labs and handed out the coffee, and she waved to Spock as he left. Thank god for Vulcan ignorance. Meanwhile, Bones had made his way up to the bridge, where Kirk was overseeing the exit from the nebula. He stood behind his chair as Kirk called out orders, and waited until their course was clear before leaning over.

"Do you think I could have a word?" Kirk looked surprised.

"Of course, what do you need?" They headed to an empty conference room, and McCoy folded his arms and began pacing.

"It's about Madeleine." He glared at Kirk's knowing look.

"Stop that, there's something wrong with her, she's been avoiding me and I know she hasn't been eating well, has Lia said anything to you?" Kirk looked bewildered.

"No, not at all, what are you thinking?" McCoy threw his hands up.

"I have no idea, the woman's driving me mad! At first, she seemed interested, but now, I have no idea what to make of her behavior." Kirk got that knowing look on his face again and McCoy resisted chucking his medi-scanner at him. "What?"

"I think you two need to clear the air, make your intentions known to her. Then maybe everything will make itself clear." McCoy sighed and ran a hand through his hair,

"You're right, okay, I'll do it." Kirk thumped him on the back.

"Good man, now if you'll excuse me." McCoy nodded, distracted.

"Yeah yeah, go back to your throne." Kirk chuckled and left the room, leaving McCoy to sink down in one of the seats. Make his intentions known-just how should he go about doing that? His eyes lit up and he stood up.

"Of course!"

Lia couldn't get this one stray thought out of her head. It started when she saw Spock and continued on through lunch and past dinner. She'd asked a few people in her department but so far no one could really give her an answer, but she wanted to know. How do you do a Vulcan Nerve Pinch? She couldn't ask Spock while he was still on duty, so maybe Maddy had an idea. She walked into Maddy's room and found her attempting to do yoga. Maddy had decided she would be the first to perfect space yoga. Lia didn't feel like putting up a fight and telling her it was stupid.

"Namaste."

"Hi." Maddy returned to normal posture.

"What's up chica?"

"Do you know how to do a Vulcan Nerve Pinch?" She shrugged.

"I was under the impression humans couldn't learn it. But I think there's a pressure point that must be hit." Lia was aghast.

"Can't learn it!" There was nothing she disliked more than being told there was something she wouldn't be able to do.

"Yeah Spock tried teaching Kirk, but he couldn't get it."

"Well that's just Kirk."

"I'm pretty sure it goes for everyone."

"No way, I bet there's a way I can learn it."

"I doubt Spock will teach you. I can't see how that would be 'logical'."

"Well I don't have to have Spock teach me."

"Do you know any other Vulcans?"

"No, I'll learn it the same way I'd learn anything else...from the internet. Computer, data read out on Vulcan Nerve Pinching." The computer started reading out information about the nerve pinch while Lia performed her victory dance in front of Maddy.

"Ha! Now come on, help me try this." Maddy stood up and they faced each other.

"This isn't going to work." They gripped the other one's shoulder and attempted to nerve pinch the other. Nothing happened.

"See. Humans can't do it." Lia glared at nothing.

"Yes we can. Let's try it again." They attempted to knock the other out for the next ten minutes, trying different grips on various locations. Both of them remained conscious.

"It's called a _Vulcan _nerve pinch for a reason."

"No. No, I'm getting the hang of this. Spock's taller than everyone, maybe I have to be at a different angle."

"I have to go on duty now." She was about to leave when Lia grabbed her one more time and then everything went dark.

"I knew it! I just had the wrong angle, that's all!" She let out a victory whoop and did her dance again before noticing Maddy wasn't moving. "Maddy? Maddy?" She kicked her. "Maddy. Computer how long does the Vulcan Nerve Pinch last?"

"Two hours twelve minutes thirteen seconds." She nudged her friend again.

"Oh crud." She ran out into the hallway, and headed on a dead run to the med bay. She burst in through the doors, almost running into Chapel.

"Bones! I-did something bad!" McCoy came out of an examination room, followed by Spock, who was feeling quite sour that McCoy caught him to give him his physical. They stared at the panting Lia.

"What, what's wrong?" She flailed.

"I knocked out Maddy with the Vulcan Nerve Pinch!" Spock's eyebrow went up, and McCoy let out a laugh. Seeing her panicked expression not changing, his face grew serious. They followed her to Maddy's room, where they found her still sprawled on the floor.

"Never before has a human learned the Vulcan Nerve Pinch, especially without a teacher." She shrugged.

"I looked it up on the computer." She fiddled as Spock stared at her in a new light.

"Fascinating."

"Well she won't be waking up for a couple of hours anyway."

"2.01578 hours to be exact." McCoy stood up, and lifted Maddy up carefully and tucked her into her bed. Lia grabbed Spock's arm and dragged him outside, recognizing a moment about to happen. McCoy sighed and kissed Maddy's forehead. He brushed a stray piece of hair out of her face and came outside. Spock was trying to figure out what a 'moment' was, as he was no good with romantic feelings, when they paused, seeing McCoy.

"She'll be fine. And you." He looked at Lia, who fiddled guiltily. "You need to be careful, Spock, deal with her, will you?" He headed back to the med bay, resolved to go back and see Maddy in two hours when she woke up. Spock looked at Lia.

"The doctor's right, come." Lia slowly followed behind Spock. She was trying to figure out what was going to happen, she had just proved that she could master Vulcan secrets in a matter of minutes and without a Vulcan teacher no less. He must be taking her somewhere to discuss her Vulcanness. She was mildly giddy at the idea. Dating Kirk or not she was originally a Spock fangirl and was currently being escorted somewhere by her former lust object. She could hear the fangirls crying in jealousy. She would have laughed but that would have been a very un-Vulcan-like thing to do. So instead she settled for shouting victory in her head. Spock stopped in front of a door in the same corridor as Kirk's. Lia could literally feel her heart stop. She was about to enter Spock's room.

"Stay here." Okay, so she wasn't about to enter Spock's room, but at least now she knew where it was. He came back holding two heavy books. "You will read these and return them to me in the week."

"What are they?"

"An old Vulcan book on customs and social responsibility and a Standard to Vulcan dictionary." Social responsibility? Wait, was he giving her homework? "You will also take Miss Flint's shift today."

"I'm a physicist, not a biologist."

"You have mentioned that biology was once your minor?" She nodded of course Spock would remember that. "It will do." She left Spock in a much gloomier mood than earlier. You would think learning a secret Vulcan piece of knowledge would make them grow closer, not give her homework and extra shifts.

"Should have just left Maddy unconscious on the floor." He was probably just jealous of her talent.

Two hours past and McCoy was back at Maddy's bedside, waiting for her to wake up. He didn't have to wait long.

"Lia? What did you do? Wait..." She blinked and McCoy's face came into view. She blushed.

"Uhh, hi?" He sighed and leaned down and kissed her. Her eyes fluttered closed and he pulled away. She sighed.

"What was that for?" He put his hand on her cheek and smiled.

"For being you, you really had me worried."

"Wait, you mean she actually did it? Oh my gosh." McCoy laughed.

"Yes, I sicked Spock on her." They both laughed and McCoy took both her hands in his.

"Maddy, I've been wanting to tell you something...I have feelings for you. Strong feelings, and I know I've been taking it slow, but that's just how us Southern boys are, I guess." Maddy was speechless. This was a Southern thing? Boy was that a relief. She smiled at him.

"That explains a few things, cause I have feelings for you too." He smiled and leaned down and kissed her once more.

"Wait, did I miss my shift?" She nearly leapt out of the bed in panic. McCoy pushed her back down gently.

"Easy, Spock had Lia take it for you, you're free for now." She returned his smile and lowered the lights.

"So?"

"So what?" Lia was prying for details the day after Maddy had her McCoy moment. Maddy would not divulge. This had been going on for awhile, and Lia was about to blackmail her into telling her what happened, when the claxons started going off. They looked at each other in alarm.

"What do we do?" Maddy fiddled with her hair.

"Likely they'll want us to stay in here." Lia looked at her like she was crazy. "Okay fine, let's go." They left the room to see people running everywhere, and Kirk's voice was heard over the loudspeaker.

"Red alert, all personnel to battle stations." Lia and Maddy looked at each other.

"They never gave us battle stations."

"Huh, I wonder if they did that on purpose?"

"So what do we do?" Lia wanted to go to the bridge, Maddy wanted to go to the med bay. They decided to go to the med bay on the way to the bridge as a compromise. When they came in, they saw McCoy and Chapel preparing emergency supplies and prepping tables.

"What's going on?" McCoy looked up in surprise.

"What are you two doing in here? Go back to your rooms, no-wait." He had a thought, the med bay was the best protected spot in the ship, and if he and Jim wanted them safe, here would be the best place for them. "Nevermind, come over here and help." Maddy looked around,, whenever there was a red alert on the show only the bridge was shown she didn't know what the rest of the crew did. She settled for helping Chapel prepare medical equipment, scanners and bandages incase anyone got injured. Lia flittered for a second before settling in to help McCoy prep tables.

"Bones, what is the emergency?"

"Two cruisers firing nuclear-grade missiles at each other, we were at this system once before, but I was under the impression their war was over, guess it started up again. We're supposed to open negotiations, see if we can help patch things up. But before that, we've got to get them to stop firing at each other!" He seemed very irritated, so Lia just kept her mouth shut and stretched a sheet over a stretcher. She was moving to get another when something hit the ship, and everyone went flying. She hit the wall, Bones hit Chapel, and Maddy flew straight out the door into the hallway, where a redshirt promptly tripped over her.

"That hurt." She looked over and saw the red shirt sprawled out on the floor. She was relieved to notice he wasn't dead, red shirts died very easily. Lia was suddenly flying out the door, hitting her and sending her back to the ground.

"Ow." McCoy came out and helped her up.

"Kirk asked for her in the transporter room." Maddy frowned.

"Why?"

"Beats me." She helped him hoist the red shirt inside the med bay, where she watched him work. Lia, meanwhile, was dodging people on her way to the lift. She got on to see Spock and Kirk already inside. Kirk looked relieved to see her.

"Good, you're alright."

"Why am I here?"

"We were able to get the two sides to agree to a temporary cease fire, but the two leaders from the planets are coming aboard and one of them..." He trailed off.

"One of them what?"

"There's a complicated history between me and the leader of the Elasians."

"Elasians?"

"Yes, I don't know what happened, a marriage was arranged between her and the Troyian prince." Lia held her hand up, pausing Kirk. Maddy had made her watch this episode when they had a paper due on the Iliad. Lia had had to point out the episode was nothing like the Iliad.

"You slept with her? She's the tear chick?" Kirk at least had the decency to look slightly ashamed. "Wait, are there lingering affects of the tears? Is that why I'm here, so you don't end up sleeping with her again?" She didn't know who she was mad at, Kirk, or some chick that thought she could come between her and her man. She settled for being mad at both. She merely crossed her arms and put a neutral expression on her face.

"Okay, let's just get this over with." They exited the lift and headed for the transporter, where they met Scotty. He smiled at Lia and gave Kirk a serious look.

"All ready Captain, energizing...now." Three figures materialized onto the platform. Two were what looked like male hookers to Lia, while the other was a beautiful woman who, to Lia's eyes, almost looked Egyptian. Lia stepped closer to Kirk and gave the woman a steely look that clearly said _don't even think about it._

"Captain."

"Elaan." She stepped closer to Kirk, but Lia intercepted her.

"Ensign Acacia." Lia put on her best I'm-superior-to-you-don't-touch-my-man look. They stood at almost the same height, Elaan seemed to recognize to look in Lia's eyes and returned her gaze with a I-could-have-him-if-I-wanted-him look. This would have continued, had not Scotty cleared his throat. Kirk blinked, he had been staring at the two of them as well. He cleared his throat, it was time to get down to business.

"Elaan, I was under the impression the peace treaty had been signed between your people and the hostilities had ended with your marriage." Her expression didn't change, but she stepped off the platform in front of Kirk, and looked him in the eye.

"It did, until I killed that pig they gave me away to." Spock's eyebrows went up, and Kirk frowned.

"Making the treaty moot." It wasn't hard to believe she killed her husband, she hated the Troyians. But to restart the war simply for her own selfish reasons? Lia was still glaring at her hatefully, but Elaan didn't look at her, only at Kirk.

"You will show me to my quarters. Hers will do." She gave Lia a nasty look, and she smirked back.

"No problem, I'm bunking with him anyway." She said, nodding her head at Kirk, who was now wondering whether bringing Lia here was a good idea. He prayed they didn't end up killing each other, knowing Elaan's temper, and Lia's talent with a sabre.

"Is that true?" Elaan was looking at Kirk for an answer, but once again Lia spoke first.

"Yes, it is. Follow me, I'll show you to my room." Kirk ordered two red shirts to go with her, just in case. Once Lia and Elaan and her guards left, Kirk allowed himself to relax.

"You're really not good with your exes are you?" Kirk turned around and saw Maddy standing next to Bones. When did they get there? He didn't dignify her question with a response.

"I mean, one of them bodynapped you and didn't a witch or something want to get into your pants? And one of them hypersped you. You should probably work on that, at least before Lia stabs the princess's eye out, and she would too, incase you're wondering." He frowned and headed for the door, he had no idea Lia was so violent, so possessive, so...okay that train of thought should probably be saved for later. He motioned to Maddy.

"Go with them, keep them in line." She gave him a mock salute.

"Aye, aye, Captain." She left, leaving Bones, Scotty, Spock, and Kirk together. Scotty watched Maddy as she left, then looked at Kirk.

"I'd say we need ta get goin as soon as possible Captain, less the lass is right and those two take each other out!" Kirk nodded and hit the intercom.

"Sulu, warp four, we need to make this quick."

"Aye Captain."

Lia and Elaan were ignoring the guards and sizing each other up out of the corner of their eyes. Lia was trying to remember everything she could from the episode. She knew the chick came from a warrior race and was supposed to bring peace and marry someone, apparently she didn't get the memo. She was pretty sure she could take her in a fight. Warrior race or not women from the future were pansies.

Elaan was trying to figure out why her Kirk would be interested in this skinny pale weakling. She obviously had no royalty in her blood and was only an ensign, no one of importance. She probably could not even do battle or kill a man. She wouldn't be a problem. Satisfied in her analysis, Elaan contented herself with the knowledge that if she wanted the Captain back she wouldn't have any problems dealing with this one. Suddenly a second human female popped into her view.

"Hi! I'm Maddy I'll be the buffer between you and Lia. It's nice to meet you." She held her hand out but Elaan simply ignored it. Slightly irked, Maddy put her hand down. "Wow they weren't kidding, you are rude. Well, I'll assume you don't know how to shake hands. So I hear you started a war cause you didn't like your husband. How's that going for you?" Lia watched Maddy out of the corner of her eye, there was a trick to Maddy, when you thought she was serious she was joking, and when you thought she was joking she was serious. This time however, she didn't know what Maddy was doing. Knowing her, she probably didn't realize she was being rude. Lia was okay with that. She made a big show of going into her room and picking up her lingerie, making sure Elaan could see it, and putting it in a bag.

"I don't think I'll need anything else." She was walking out the door when Elaan's voice stopped her.

"I did not dismiss you." Lia turned around and practically growled.

"Too bad." She stalked out of the room and headed for the lift so that she could put her things in Kirk's room. She couldn't wait till they got rid of that bitch. Meanwhile, Maddy was left standing awkwardly in the doorway.

"So, um I'll just be going...good luck with your unnecessary war." She started backing up slowly. "Dinner's at seven and no one's going to bring it to you. Oh, and you should think about wearing a bra and maybe some pants." Elaan angrily glared at Maddy, with evident disdain in her eyes. Maddy didn't seem to notice or care, she just assumed all of Kirk's exs were like this. "Well, I'll be seeing you." She waved and left the sluttily dressed warrior princess alone to brood. Maddy, meanwhile, was debating giving Elaan some proper clothing and making a few wagers about the outcome of this situation. She wondered if Scotty was a betting man.


	10. The Plan

A/N: Oh, wow you guys rock! That was the most reviews we've ever gotten on a chapter before, and they were all so nice. Thank you. Special thanks you out to the following people.

**Nappyhead:** There will definitely be more nerve pinches coming up in the future and if Maddy has her way, many, many more McCoy moments.

**Skiing Pelican:** I understand, I don't like reading stories without breaks either. We always try to add breaks, but when we upload the documents ff.n seems to decide it doesn't like them and away they go. Half the reason the girls don't take things seriously is because it isn't real to them yet. No worries though we have plans for seriousness…eventually. We're just huge humor fans.

**Osperus:** I'm so happy this fic makes you happy, that means a lot. Thank you. And you're absolutely right a replicator should be able to replicate a notebook. I have no idea what I was thinking when I wrote that part.

**Mrs. PavelChekov:** Still one of my favorite pen names I think, thank you for your constant reviews and don't worry Elaan gets what's coming to her.

**Estar9821:** I understand completely. I too am guilty of the same sin of reading a fic and not reviewing, but thank you for taking the time to. Don't worry the next chapter will be all about Spock.

**Tracie G**: We're so honored to be your first review. There's nothing like a first time. (Please note very bad joke)

Thank you all for your wonderful reviews. They really make us smile.

Sincerely, Vanillaninja2032and Shke Behet

Now, that I've taken up most of your time, the chapter…

The Plan

"I will have nothing to do with this Troyian pig anymore!" Elaan yelled in Conference room A, where they were currently trying to write up a treaty. But Elaan was being unreasonable, and swaying her diplomat, whose eyes rarely left her face. She manipulated him easily and the Troyians were running out of patience. Kirk had had just about enough, and declared a brief recess. He walked outside and thought about going to his room for a minute, when Lia came around the corner. He smiled at her and took her hand.

"Hello." He gave her a quick kiss.

"Hey. How's the conference going?" She had heard Elaan calling someone a pig.

"It could be better." She nodded understandingly. They heard her yelling again. It was amazing someone hadn't killed the chick yet, she was not pleasant. "We're taking a small break that will hopefully cool some tempers."

"So you have some time?" A nod and a knee-buckling smile was given. "I was about to get some coffee, do you want to come?"

"I'd love to." He took her arm and led her to the rec room.

"Captain." Elaan's harsh voice was heard. Kirk had to fight off the urge to groan and Lia had to fight the urge to punch her.

"Yes, Elaan?" She gave Lia a scathing look and stepped in, what was Lia's opinion, too close to Kirk.

"I need you." He followed her gaze to the conference room and sighed. Lia glared, she didn't like the way she had made that sound. Kirk kissed her on the cheek and promised to have dinner with her before following Elaan back into the conference room.

"That chick is seriously messing up your romance mojo with Captain Love." Lia turned around, there was Maddy.

"How do you keep doing that?"

"When I sneak around it's like I'm watching the show again. But that's not important! What's important is that princess bitch is coming on to your man, but no worries I'm here to help."

"What do you intend to do?"

"I've got it all outlined in my contingency notebook." Maddy proudly held up a plain green spiral notebook, and flipped to a page and showed Lia. Someone had finally pointed out to her that she could get a notebook from the replicator, she was very pleased and a little embarrassed at the same time.

"Someone Tries to Steal Kirk from Lia Plan." She read through it. "When did you write this?" Maddy shrugged.

"Few weeks ago when you and Kirk got together."

"But you didn't even know about her then."

"I like being prepared." Lia gave her a suspicious look, before reading through her plan. It was surprisingly clever. "This might actually work." Maddy nodded enthusiastically and they walked to the lift, they were meeting Sulu and Chekov for lunch in the rec room, Chekov had been bothering Lia lately, jokingly telling her she never spent time with him anymore, so she agreed. Though she wasn't sure if he knew she was with Kirk, she'd noticed he was a little dense. She said so and Maddy nodded.

"Are you ever going to bother telling him about you and Captain Love?"

"Stop calling him that, I don't call Bones Dr. Sexy."

"I do." Maddy wiggled her eyebrows suggestively and Lia fought off the urge to hit her. "But seriously, our dear Russian is a crushin on you."

"I know, it's just awkward." Maybe she could get Kirk to kiss her in front of him, that would take care of things. But he'd never do it while on the bridge...They walked into the rec room and Sulu flagged them over to a table in the corner. They got their food and sat down, Chekov immediately putting his arm around Lia. She discreetly shrugged it off and Maddy nodded at Sulu, who had also simply assumed Chekov knew Lia was with Kirk.

"How have you two been? I hear you've been having to deal with the Elasian princess."

"Awful. Disney princess she is not." Sulu nodded along and pretended to know what that meant. "How are things on the bridge?"

"Tense." Chekov tried putting his arm around Lia again, only to have her fake sneeze and jerk away from it. This time Sulu had to suppress a laugh and Maddy choked on her food. At that moment, there was some commotion at the door, as the Elasian's muscled their way in to the food synthesizers. Lia caught Elaan's eye just as Chekov got his arm around her again. A smug little smirk appeared on Elaan's face, and Lia frowned, confused. She shrugged and took her plate to the dish conveyer belt and headed back to the table. She sat down next to Maddy this time, so that Chekov would get the hint. He didn't and merely leaned over the table.

"I vas thinking that tonight ve could spend some time in the holo-room, vhat do you say?" Luckily, Maddy rescued her.

"Oh, sorry, me and Chapel planned a girl's night tonight. Maybe some other time, right Lia?" Lia nodded, thankful for Maddy's excuse.

"Yeah." Chekov winked at her.

"You will just haff to make it up to me." Lia caught Elaan looking at her again and glared back. Why was she in here anyway? "I am due back on the bridge. I will see you later?" Lia shrugged and before she knew what happened Chekov leaned in and kissed her on the cheek before leaving. She sat there stunned for a moment, Maddy's words brought her around.

"That's not good."

"I know! Crap I shoulda just told him Kirk and I are seeing each other, but I didn't want to hurt his feelings!"

"No, not that. Elaan say the whole thing." Lia froze. So that's what she was smirking about! Dammit, that could not have had worse timing. She groaned and put her head on the table. Sulu looked slightly lost.

"It can't be that bad." While Maddy explained the situation to Sulu, Lia watched as Elaan swaggered out of the room, giving her one last smug look before the door slid closed. Lia jumped up.

"I'm not letting that bitch turn this into something it's not, screw her!" Several crewmen looked startled at her outburst, but she ignored them and left in pursuit of Elaan. Maddy jumped up too.

"I gotta go babysit those two, I'll see you later." She left Sulu at the table and left after Lia. She found her and Elaan having a standoff a minute later. Apparently, Elaan went straight to Kirk to tell him what she saw and try to get in his good graces, when Lia showed up, and rebuked her, Maddy just caught the tail end of it.

"-It's not my fault he can't take a hint, goodness knows I've dropped plenty!" She was referring to Chekov. Elaan sneered at her and took Kirk's arm.

"I know what I saw." Lia crossed her arms.

"So do I, he has a crush on me, big deal, he'll leave me alone as long as I keep rejecting his advances."

"You seemed pretty friendly to me." Elaan snaked her arms around Kirk and leaned in close. "She doesn't care about you like I do. You can't trust swine like her. You can trust me." She whispered softly in Kirk's ear. Lia was about to lunge for the kill when Maddy held her back.

"Elaan, in Lia's and my culture it is perfectly acceptable for friends to exchange pleasantries in that manner. Hugs and kisses are signs of affection, not lust."

"That is no Earth custom I am aware of." She was still draped around Kirk, who wasn't doing anything about it, much to Lia's annoyance.

"We're from an Earth colony. Things are different there." Maddy hoped that Kirk understood what she was getting at. This wasn't Lia's fault.

"On my world when someone's mate is unfaithful the man has the right to dispose of her and select another." She pulled herself closer to Kirk.

"Well it's a good thing Lia wasn't being unfaithful then." Lia was still glaring at Elaan's arm wrapped around Kirk's neck. Why wasn't he brushing her off? She was this close to just leaving and say screw both of them, when suddenly Kirk's eye twitched. McCoy came up from behind him and put something in his pocket, while Kirk took Elaan's arms off of him. He looked confused, like he had no idea what was going on, then the expression hardened and he turned to Elaan.

"Elaan, you are confined to quarters for the rest of our journey, I am the **captain**, and my orders will be obeyed." He stressed, seeing her wanting to fight him. She settled with a haughty look and stalked off down the hall. Lia watched her go, and was suddenly engulfed in Kirk's embrace. McCoy and Maddy politely looked away, and she pointed quizzically at his pocket. He smiled and mimed zipping his lips. Maddy smiled and took his arm, and they headed off down the hallway, leaving Lia and Kirk in the middle of it.

"You pumped him full of that antidote didn't you? The one for Elasian tears?" McCoy smiled at her.

"Yes, but neither of them need to know that."

"Why Doctor, you're quite the romantic aren't you?"

"You know it." Meanwhile, Kirk had yet to let go of Lia. She finally pulled away from him and examined him closely.

"Are you alright?" He smiled at her and kissed her again.

"Now I am."

-/-

Elaan threw a chair across the room. That weak swine! How dare she get in the way of her and Captain Kirk! She threw a brush into a mirror, shattering it. How could he? How could Kirk do this to her? She ripped up the bed sheets. Didn't he realize she was still in love with him? Didn't he know that she could never have been happy on Troyius because he was the only one she would ever love? He was the first man that challenged her, the first man that didn't care who she was. She overturned the desk. Sometimes she could still feel his arms around her, still imagine his touch. During her time on Troyius she longed to be with him. She knew a war would bring him back to her, but now some foolish commoner had him. She would never stand for this. She still loved him and she intended to prove to Kirk that he still loved her too. She calmed down and looked at the destroyed room. She just needed to do away with the competition first.

Lia grinned as she slipped on her boots. Sharing a room with Kirk certainly had its benefits. She could definitely get used to this arrangement. She looked over at Kirk, who was sleeping, and quickly kissed him. She wished she could join him and go back to sleep, but she had to go on duty soon, she just needed to stop at her room and get a fresh uniform. She couldn't keep the grin off her face as she exited his room.

"Yes, I'll put you through, please hold." Janice sighed and leaned back in her chair. Working at a call center was more work than she anticipated, since she was used to electronics not needing to be run manually. Luckily though, her boss loved her, so she was happy to make a new friend. Tonia started work the next day, and soon, they would be able to pay for their apartment themselves, and she could pay back Jack. Though, she pondered with a smile, he probably wouldn't let her. She thanked her lucky stars she met him, he was a dreamboat, and really cared about her, her dream man, found in the past of another dimension of all places. Her phone rang, and she sighed and picked it up.

"How may I direct your call?" She hoped Tonia would be able to find someone just as compassionate as Jack was, so that she too could create a life here.

Maddy was in a flurry, she was running late and for some reason the laundry services weren't working, so she had no uniform to wear. When she tried to replicate one, it told her its quota was filled, and it needed maintenance. She was ready to scream. She ran to the lift, ignoring the odd looks she received for her tank top and sweats, and waited until it stopped on Lia's deck. She ran down the hall to her room and pounded on the door, maybe she had a spare she could borrow. No one answered, so she overrode the lock and stepped inside to see chaos. Things were on the floor, the bed was overturned, the mirror on her vanity was smashed, and the pillows had been ripped, sending stuffing everywhere.

"Lia?" Maddy was getting nervous now. She went and checked the bathroom, and saw that that mirror had also been shattered, and there was a small amount of blood on the floor, as if someone had walked over the shattered fragments of the mirror. She swallowed, a feeling of dread rising in her. She flipped open her communicator.

"Kirk? You need to get to Lia's room-_now_. I think she's been kidnapped."

Lia was mad. She kept wondering why this always happened to her. Okay, so maybe she brought it on herself, and okay maybe goading a warrior princess was a bad idea, and maybe only packing lingerie and no uniforms, meaning she had to go back to her room wasn't the greatest idea she ever had, and maybe staying in her room to examine the damage done by said warrior princess instead of getting security was a little foolish. But still! Did she have to keep on getting kidnapped? It was bad enough the Romulans got her, but some Egyptian wanna-be Xena warrior princess had to go and kidnap her. She could just hear all those lectures her dad used to give her about always being aware and never getting kidnapped. It wasn't like she got in a car with a stranger and took their candy. She was just at the wrong place at the wrong time, and made the wrong leader of an alien race mad. Looking back, she could have done a lot of things differently, but it was still worth it for the look on Elaan's face when she told her she was bunking with Kirk. That part she wouldn't change for anything. Well maybe said captain, but that was all! And maybe some aspirin, she was starting to get a headache, but that was it!

-/-/-

"How do you know she's been kidnapped?" Maddy had to go against every instinct in her body, and not talk in a British accent and address Kirk as 'My dear man' and it was really killing her to not be smoking a pipe and referring to McCoy as Watson. But she had to be strong!

"One! She hasn't answered her comm. Two! Our esteemed tearful princess of the Amazon and her Chip 'N Dale dancers are gone. Three! We know Elaan had it out for Lia, for obvious reasons." She leaned over and whispered to Kirk. "She wanted to get in your pants." Returning to full volume, ignoring the fact that everyone could still hear her when she was whispering. "And fourth, the most condemning evidence of all. This cold full cup of coffee." A red shirt started to object.

"How is that-?" Maddy held up her hand.

"You don't know her like I do. Lia has a caffeine addiction that would put most crack addicts to shame. She values coffee more than any other beverage. I once saw her drink a week old cup of coffee from a mug she found in her back seat, because she was starting to get a headache. Caffeine addicts must have coffee, lest they get the worst headaches known to man. Lia knows this. She would _never _leave a full cup of coffee, at least not willingly. Plus they got it on the security cameras and you can check the transporter records." Kirk turned to the security guards that he brought down with him.

"Fan out, search Elaan's room, see who last used the transporter without authorization. I want to know where they are, now." The red shirts hurried to comply, leaving Kirk and Maddy alone in Lia's room. Kirk pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. Maddy recognized the look and stepped forward.

"It wasn't your fault, you couldn't have known Elaan would have reacted this way, and Lia can take care of herself you know." Kirk shook his head.

"If anything happens to her..." Maddy nodded.

"I know." Kirk straightened and went to the wall comm.

"Spock? Come down to Lia's room, now." He could almost see the eyebrow that almost assuredly went up.

"Captain." He said in acknowledgement. Maddy started picking things up off the floor, but Kirk shook his head.

"Wait until it's been searched for evidence, you don't want to tamper with anything." Maddy stopped and got up just as Spock walked in. Both his eyebrows went up at the mess and he turned to Kirk, waiting for an explanation. He sighed.

"Lia's been...kidnapped. The most likely suspect is Elaan." Spock nodded and surveyed the room.

"Indeed, I shall assemble a search party immediately." He left the room briefly, and Kirk called in two more security officers to search the room for evidence. He walked outside and listened as Spock gave orders on the wall comm. Spock turned around and took notice of his drawn expression and listless eyes and cleared his throat.

"The transporter was used approximately 1.97 hours ago for four life forms, three Elasians and one Terran."

"See, I was right." Once again Maddy was standing behind everyone. She clapped her hands. "Well let's get this rescue party going. We'll probably need three red shirts, you, me, Spock and the Doctor."

"This is a delicate and dangerous situation." Maddy held her hand up stopping Kirk from his obvious speech about how she shouldn't come with them.

"No, look I understand your captainly concern, but I have more experience with kidnapped Lia than anyone else. You'll need my expertise."

"Kidnapped Lia?" She completely ignored the worried looks on everyone's face, save Spock whose face couldn't register worry.

"Oh yeah, she used to get kidnapped all the time. I think it was the worst when I was actually standing right next to her when she got grabbed one time. I actually have a contingency plan for when she gets kidnapped in my notebook." Kirk looked even more concerned.

"We'll talk about that later, Spock?" Spock turned to him. "You'll lead the rescue party, I'll join you as soon as I can." He headed up to the bridge, and Maddy looked at Spock expectantly.

"Can I have a phaser?" He didn't even dignify her question with an eyebrow.

"No."

-/-

Lia was starting to wonder why she never watched more jailbreak movies. The frame of reference would really be useful right about now. She wasn't in a fancy laser cell like she was last time, but this cell was still giving her problems. She had no bobby pin to pick the lock with, and even if she could get the cell door open she still had two supermodel guards to deal with. Big, bulky, muscle-bound supermodel guards that could very easily take her in a fight.

She didn't know what Elaan had planned for her. She wasn't sure if she was going to be executed or held for ransom or simply put in a cell and forgotten about. She really wished she knew. Even if it was something particularly nasty, knowing was always better than wondering. It was at that moment one of Elaan's chip n dale guards came in and threw something at her. It was a slutty outfit similar to Elaan's, except it was blue. She looked at him in confusion.

"Put it on, you will duel shortly." He left and Lia stared at her new outfit. She was going to duel? Who the heck dueled in clothes like this anyway?

-/-

Maddy was having an internal debate. She had taken steps to prevent something like this from happening. She had been worried since day one that something horrible like this might happen, but now that it had she wasn't sure what to do. Did she stand next to Spock or the red shirts? The red shirts would surely invite death and having them around was like a lightning rod one stuck on their barn, but what if death had bad aim and got her instead? And then there was Spock. Spock was a main character. Spock was safe. No, she corrected herself, being Spock was safe. If disaster ever struck him it would be resolved by the end of the episode, or else an entire movie would be devoted to it. Being Spock was safe, standing next to Spock she wasn't so sure. She didn't want to be Spock's lightening rod of misfortune, but she certainly didn't feel safe around Ensigns Bad and Luck. No, she really wasn't sure what to do.

"Ensign?"

"I JUST DON'T KNOW!" They turned to stare at her. She cleared her throat. "Where Lia is?" She finished meekly. Spock, meanwhile, was adjusting the settings on his tricorder to detect tachyons. Elaan had no idea that Lia radiated tachyons, so theoretically, finding her would be easy. Unfortunately, while he was near Maddy, it was only picking up on the tachyons surrounding _her._

"We need to split up."

"What?" Maddy was worried, splitting up was never a good idea.

"Myself and Ensign Smith will go east, the two of you will go west. Meet back here at 0500 hours." Both red shirts nodded, while Maddy gaped like a fish. This was it, she was done for.

"Son of a bitch." Spock must have it out for her. She eyed the red shirt next to her and hoped this was going to be one of those rare occasions where no one died. "Could've at least let me have a phaser." She started following the red shirt, wishing she had brought her baseball bat with her. "Or my crowbar." Maybe she'd get lucky and they wouldn't run into trouble. It was then they heard the drums.

-/-

"Why am I wearing this again?" Lia was being shepherded down a hallway to she didn't know where...wearing a very revealing blue leotard thing that was armored on the chest. One of the guards threatened to undress her if she didn't do it herself, and that was something she definitely did not want. So here she was, slutty and confused. Until the hallway ended and she came out into a large open-aired stadium, filled with screaming Elasians, Elaan herself standing at the other end of the stadium, her arms crossed, holding a battle axe. Lia stared.

"You've got to be kidding me." Another one of Elaan's Chip 'N Dale dancers deposited an equally large battle axe in her arms. She gripped it and gave it a few experimental swings. It was just as heavy as it looked, meaning her range of attack motions had just been cut in half. Elaan's booming voice broke her thoughts.

"It is an Elasain tradition that when two females covet the same mate, the outcome will be decided upon in battle." Crap, it is what she thought it was.

"You want to fight me for Kirk?"

"To the victor go the spoils."

"You know I think you'll need to ask him first." If she had known dating the captain of the Enterprise was going to put her in these types of situations she would have tried harder to seduce Spock. Spock's exes weren't crazy. That she knew of. But one of the guards pushed her toward the center of the arena, Elaan standing opposite her. Oh crap.

Meanwhile, Maddy and her red shirt security guard were cautiously approaching a large building that the drumming was coming from. It had a wide entrance with a large gate that was currently open, and the red shirt went ahead to get a better look. Maddy stayed as far away from him as possible, just to be on the safe side. Then, a large cheer came from inside, and he came running back.

"It's an arena! And Ensign Acacia is inside, the Elasian princess and her are...dueling!" He said it as if he didn't quite believe it himself, but Maddy went into action mode. She flipped open her communicator.

"Spock, we've found her, follow our signal." She switched the signal to lock onto the Enterprise's channel. "Kirk? You better get down here, fast."

Elaan gave a battle cry and started running at Lia, who tried running away and found herself to be a lot slower than usual.

"Damn axe." Elaan was right behind her loudly screaming about how she was going to hang her head on a plaque in the great hall. Just as she was right behind her, Lia dropped to the ground and stuck her foot out, tripping the princess. Lia got back up and grabbed her axe, waiting for Elaan to stand up. She was counting her lucky stars that actually worked, and quickly backpedaled, trying to get some space between them.

"Come on Lia!" She stared over at Maddy, who just entered the arena with her red shirt, taking a seat in the front row. Lia was justifiably upset.

"A little help here!" Elaan swung at her again, and she just kept dodging, not even attempting to use her own axe, knowing she was next to useless with it.

"Punch her in the boob!"

"Not helping Maddy!"

"Alright fine." She took a deep breath and cupped her hands. "Hey Elaan! Boo! You suck! Your hair's stupid and if it wasn't for your magic tears no man would touch you with a ten foot pole! Your shoes are stupid and your make up makes you look like a drag queen! Everyone from your planet looks like cheap hookers!"

"How is that helping?" The next thing either of them knew, Elaan had thrown her axe in the stands trying to hit Maddy. She ducked just in time, unfortunately the spectator sitting behind her did not.

"See now she doesn't have a weapon!" Elaan merely crouched down, ready for hand to hand combat. Lia looked at her axe. She really should put it down so it would be a fair fight, but then she would probably lose. While she was contemplating, Elaan took the initiative and punched her, just missing her nose. Lia's axe fell to the ground, though she managed to keep her feet, stumbling backward. Lia snarled.

"Okay, I'm done playing nice!" She leapt at her, and they began trying to punch and kick each other, Elaan finally grabbed Lia's long hair and held her head back, punching her again. It was then Spock showed up, followed by Kirk beaming down next to Maddy. He gaped at the scene, as Lia fell down with the force of Elaan's hit. She rubbed her cheek, and Elaan turned, spotting Kirk.

"This weakling does not deserve you! I have bested her in combat, and now you are mine."

"I never agreed to that." He crossed his arms, and Maddy for the first time, saw that Kirk was angry. _Really _angry.

"It does not matter, you are here, and now you are mine, I-" But at that moment, Elaan's eyes rolled to the back of her head, and she fell to the ground. Lia stood behind her.

"Shouldn't have turned you back on someone that knows the Vulcan nerve pinch, bitch." The crowd hissed and booed, but Lia's victory was undeniable. By their laws, Elaan now had no hold on Kirk. Lia limped over to the stands, and Kirk met her halfway.

"Hey." She stumbled slightly and Kirk caught her in his arms.

"Are you alright?"

"Let's just say I'll be paying Bones a visit." He smiled and planted a small kiss on her lips.

"I'm glad you're alright." She smiled back at him. Maddy jumped over the fence separating the audience from the arena and bounded over to Lia.

"Whoo! Alright! You totally kicked her ass! High five!" Lia slapped her out stretched hand.

"It was nothing."

"See I told you the plan would totally work!" Kirk and Spock stopped and stared at her.

"Plan?" Lia made a cutting motion at her throat, trying to get Maddy to shut up. Maddy caught on.

"Plan? What plan? Who said anything about a plan? What? Why Lia you're bleeding! We should really get you back to the ship. Gosh Kirk how could you be that irresponsible with your girlfriend? Look they have souvenirs!" Maddy promptly turned around, but her red shirt caught her.

"Aw." Kirk took out his communicator.

"Six to beam up." They reappeared in the transporter, and Scotty whistled when he saw Lia's bruised face. The red shirts left and Kirk took Lia to the med bay. McCoy met them halfway.

"What happened to you?"

"Elaan tried taking a battle axe to my face." McCoy cursed and ushered her into the medbay, while examining her with his medi-scanner. Kirk tried to follow her but McCoy waved his scanner at him threateningly and he watched as Bones took her to an examination room. He himself returned to the bridge to complete their original mission-peace. He had a feeling Elaan would be more willing to negotiate now that her pride had been beaten down.

Lia watched McCoy wave something over her face and felt the pain in her cheek lessen. Whatever he was using had somehow stitched up her cuts and were lessening her bruises. She decided right then and there that future medicine was the greatest thing ever.

Maddy came in, got to close to Lia's face and beamed at her.

"Guess what?"

"What?" Maddy stepped back slightly but her grin didn't lessen, if anything it grew larger.

"I decided you needed a victory party. So, in the fifteen minutes you've been in sickbay I've arranged one. There's cake and ice cream and pin the tail on the donkey, and Sulu and Chekov and some random science and engineering officers I found, and Scotty are coming, and I'm going to talk the space trio into attending." The space trio, Maddy's name for the trio of Spock, Kirk, and McCoy. The Golden Trio was already taken.

"What kind of cake?"

"White cake with the really thick frosting." Lia nodded.

"Okay." She hopped off the bed and followed Maddy to the lift. McCoy promised he and Chapel would be right along as soon as he put some equipment away. Once Maddy and Lia were in the lift Maddy demanded a high five.

"See my 'someone else is trying to seduce Kirk' plan totally worked." Lia nodded.

"I had my doubts."

"Psh. Not me."

"It wasn't you that had to have a gladiator-like combat with a crazy chick."

"But I was the one that came up with the idea." They heard someone clearing their throat behind them, both girls stopped and turned around. Spock. They gave him a stunned look. How was he _always _in the lift?

"Uh...hi Spock. How are you today?" Maddy nervously shifted and Lia started raking her mind for possible lies she could tell Spock to explain their conversation. He raised an eyebrow and Maddy cracked.

"It was all part of the plan! I had it outlined from day one! Lia was to get kidnapped and I would notice, then an epic rescue mission would follow, and Lia would have the ultimate cat fight with whoever it was that was trying to get into Kirk's pants, not that it's hard or anything, and Kirk would see and his love and concern would overwhelm him and Lia's rival would be defeated." Lia stomped on Maddy's foot. "YOU CAN'T TELL ANYONE!" Once again Spock remained silent.

"If you say anything Kirk will know and then the plan would've failed and then Kirk would be sad. Do you want Kirk to be sad? Cause that's what will happen if you tell him. You can't say anything. A sad captain isn't an effective one, and-" Lia grabbed Maddy and covered her mouth.

"Sometimes when Maddy gets bored she likes pretending that she came up with ideas, because she likes to think she's clever. Also, she's been feeling under the weather lately, so you really can't blame her for not making sense. She gets delusional when she's sick." Maddy squirmed away from Lia and attempted to help.

"There's cake in the rec room." Spock raised an eyebrow.

"I see." Lia hit the stop button and both girls got out of the lift.

"I have to change back into my uniform." Maddy nodded and grinned.

"So we'll see you in the rec room in five. Remember there's cake." Spock gave an imperceptible nod. He was partial to cake. The lift door closed and both girls gave a collected sigh of relief.

"Think he bought it?"

"I hope so." They continued to Lia's room, where she put on a fresh dress and stared at her odd gladiatorial outfit, before shrugging and throwing it in a drawer. They headed to the rec room and Maddy smirked.

"Keeping that for a special night, huh?" Lia's eye twitched.

"Have I ever told you you talk too much?"

"On occasion."

"Are you ever going to listen?"

"Not likely. Come on we're going to miss the cake." Lia followed Maddy to the rec room, hoping that she wouldn't have to face anymore of Kirk's exes any time soon.


	11. The Logic That Should Never Have Been

A/N: Dear , Thank you for reviewing the last chapter. It made out day.

A/N: This chapter has a bit more odd ball humor and a tinge more crack then usually, so review and let us know if it was too much and we should tone it down. Thank you to everyone who has continued to read and enjoy this fic.

Logic That Never Should Have Been

"I've decided one of my new goals in life is to hug Spock." Maddy sat down next to Lia triumphantly. Lia kept eating her dinner. It had been a month since her battle to the death with Elaan, and things had more or less returned to normal. She and Kirk were still attached at the hip and Maddy still on occasion teased her about it. Kirk had been right, dealing with Elaan and the Elasains had become much easier after Elaan had been bested. A new peace treaty was in the works and the Enterprise had been given leave to move on and leave the negations to an official Federation ambassador.

"How do you expect to do that?"

"I haven't figured it out yet, but before the end of the five year mission I _will _get a hug out of him." Lia shook her head.

"No you won't."

"Yes, I will. I am so going to get a hug out of him by the end of the five year mission." A thought suddenly struck Lia.

"How long till the end of the five year mission?" Maddy paused and gave it some thought.

"Well we got here at the end of the series, which was year three, and we've been here for about three months, so less than two years I'd say." Maddy kept on going on about how she was sure in that time she could weasel a hug out of Spock, but Lia had stopped listening to her. Less than two years. That's how much time she had left. What were her and Maddy supposed to do after that? She wasn't sure how long she and Kirk would last, neither of them were prone to long term relationships, but at the same time she never cared about anyone as much as she cared about him, so she wasn't sure. She took a sip of her drink, trying to get the suddenly bitter taste out of her mouth. She tried shaking herself out of her sudden self-induced funk. Two years was a long time. She wouldn't worry about things for at least another six months. Then she could panic. She settled back and resolved not to think about it. Instead, she thought about what she would do tonight when Kirk got off shift...okay, not hard to figure out. She got a funny little smile on her face, and Maddy paused with her fork halfway to her mouth.

"You're thinking about Captain Love, aren't you?" Li sniffed.

"Yes, what of it?" Maddy shrugged.

"Eh." She really couldn't say anything, she and Bones had come farther along in their own relationship, and she too had moved some of her things into his room, though she didn't make Lia's mistake and made sure she had a spare uniform there. But something still didn't seem quite right. For some reason, she felt like he was holding back somewhat, still slightly keeping his distance. What Maddy couldn't figure out, was _why._

"Changing the subject, I hear we're on our way to a new planet to secure a mining treaty."

"Really, a mining treaty?"

"It's _always _a mining treaty." Maddy could think of at least three episodes off the top of her head that in some way shape or form involved a mining treaty.

"Think we'll get to go down?"

"I hope so. I am so not made for space travel, the lack of terra firma is really getting me down." Lia nodded in agreement. Being in space for long periods of time is not all it's cracked up to be. "Do you think that if I told them this was an episode and it's important we be on the ground crew, they'd let us?"

"Was it?"

"No, but they don't need to know that." Lia shrugged.

"We could just tell Bones we're getting stir crazy again and threaten him with fencing in the med bay." Maddy paused.

"You're right, let's go." They headed to the med bay to see Chapel running equipment checks.

"Hey, McCoy here?" She nodded to his office, and Maddy strolled on in. Lia hung back and Chapel smiled knowingly.

"Let me guess, you want to go planet-side." Lia nodded, her face looking slightly desperate.

"I need fresh air and sky and wide open spaces, I'm from South Dakota for goodness sake!"

"Where?"

"Oh really! There's god knows how many planets everyone has memorized and nobody knows where my fricking state is?" Chapel blinked and Lia sighed. She was used to it by now, nobody cared about South Dakota. Oh well. At that moment, Maddy pranced out of McCoy's office looking smug. He followed behind her.

"Lia, we must report to the transporter room at once." Lia smiled.

"Yay, I'm so ready for this."

"Move it. What if they leave without us?" The girls waved good-bye to Chapel and McCoy and hurried to the transporter room, where Spock and three red shirts were gathered. Maddy bounded up the steps to the transporter and stood next to Spock, practically vibrating with excitement. Lia, much calmer, stood next to her. Maddy looked up at Spock, her eyes pleading.

"Can I say it?"

"Say what?"

"Energize!" The transporter operator took that as his cue and started beaming them down. "Yes!" Maddy was very pleased with herself. They reappeared in, what as far as Lia could gather, a market. There were small booths with wares and humanoids bargaining over prices. Maddy let out a long whistle.

"This looks like one of those history places where the employees never break character. Even if you catch them wearing a digital watch." Lia frowned.

"No it doesn't, this is real." Spock nodded in agreement, and turned on his tricorder, turning as he scanned the area. What he didn't notice, was the local's whispering and pointing at them. Lia cleared her throat.

"Spock, the Federation has been here before, right?" Spock looked up from his tricorder.

"Yes, we have been in communication." Lia pointed to the locals.

"Then why are they looking at us like that?" And indeed, the natives were focusing their attention on the small group, more importantly, on Spock. He finally looked up and took notice of all the attention.

"Fascinating." Lia wanted to kick him, could he not tell that their behavior was bordering on hostile? Maybe if he looked at their angry, glaring faces, he could tell.

Maddy was attempting to maneuver herself behind a red shirt for protection against the natives. It seemed everyone but Spock had noticed that the natives were not friendly. They began moving toward them and Lia grabbed Spock's sleeve.

"Do something!" He raised an eyebrow and turned toward the closest people, two men and a woman in clothing that made Maddy think they stepped right off the Mayflower. The woman was in an all black dress, with the collar up to her neck, and the men were wearing equally dark clothing. They sported stiff black shirts and early precursors of top hats, and dark breeches that ended at their knees, and white socks, or what Maddy assumed were socks.

"Greetings. We are crewman from the starship Enterprise, here with permission from your Magister." More whispering at the word magister. Lia's grip on Spock's sleeve didn't loosen, though she was glad there were three red shirts with them, they had phasers. Since these people were looking more and more hostile, Lia decided the best course of action would be to hide behind Spock, and let the red shirts take whatever these people threw at them.

"You know the Magister?"

"Yes, we have been in contact previously. The Federation wishes to establish a trade and mining treaty with the people of this planet. Your Magister was informed and agreeable on the treaty terms."

"You've done business with the Magister?"

"I believe I just said that." The man that Spock was talking to gave a small nod to the other men in the group, and they surrounded the landing party. One of the red shirts fired a shot into the crowd and hit one of the townspeople. That caused everyone to stop.

"You killed him!" The red shirt held his hands up.

"He's just stunned."

"You killed him!" Before the red shirt had a chance to say anything further the men of the own rushed the landing party, knocking the phasers out of all three of the red shirts hands, and pinning Maddy and Lia down. Spock was able to evade his attacker and hold on to his phaser. He refrained from using the Vulcan nerve pinch and making the natives think that another of their friends had been killed.

"Stop!" Spock paused and turned to see the man he had been talking to holding a musket and bayonet at Lia and Maddy. "Surrender or I'll send your witches back to hell demon."

"Demon?" Spock lowered his weapon and handed it over to one of the men.

"You work for the Magistrate, you're a demon!"

"You conclusion is illogical." Lia tried getting out of her captors arms.

"Why do you think Spock's a demon!"

"The magistrate has just been hung on charges on witchcraft. Then the six of you appear from Hell and claim to be his associates. You must be Hell-Spawned demons."

"We look like you! How can we be demons?" The man glared at Maddy, and pointed to her and Lia's uniforms.

"No decent woman would wear something like that!" Lia rolled her eyes.

"It's not like we had a choice, you know."

"Silence!" He then began to confer with several other men, whispering while the others kept them at gunpoint. Lia and Maddy were getting nervous, Maddy was eying a phaser the nearest townperson had, and Lia was attempting to communicate with Spock via staring at him. It didn't seem to be working. The self-appointed leader of the townspeople broke the huddle and scathingly regarded them.

"You will be given trial, and then burned for witchcraft." Maddy held her hand up.

"Wait, aren't we supposed to be found guilty first?"

"Very well, you will be tried, found guilty, then burned."

"Well, so long as the system is being followed."

"Maddy!"

"What?" She really wasn't worried. This thing happened on the show all the time, they'd just lose a couple red shirts, and Kirk would come to the rescue, or Spock would figure something out, all they had to do was wait. They were forced up by two men with guns then, and marched to a small building with bars, the local jail. Maddy and Lia were thrown in a small cell, Spock and the red shirts in the cell next to them. The men sneered at them, and they heard the door close, a man with a gun guarding it so they couldn't escape. Maddy plopped on the floor.

"So, who didn't get their communicator nicked?" No one paid attention to her question. Lia sat down next to her and spoke quietly.

"I have a question for you."

"Shoot."

"Did they ever encounter alien species that were _not _hostile?" Maddy paused and gave Lia's question some thought.

"Yes! The Apple. Those natives were nice and peaceful...at least till the Enterprise crew taught them to kill and have sex." Lia didn't even want to know. Instead, she looked to Spock.

"Any ideas?" They all looked at him.

"Several."

"Are any of them going to work?" Maddy looked really excited until she heard Spock's reply.

"Unknown."

"Darn."

"We are due to report back to the Enterprise in one standard hour. After that time a search party will be sent to determine what happened to us, but it is possible that they will also be captured." Everyone sighed, they had to wait in a dirty jailhouse for an hour? Yuck.

One hour later on the Enterprise showed Kirk frowning while Uhura tried to communicate with the landing party. She shook her head.

"Nothing Captain, I'm receiving a signal from the communicators, but nobody is answering them. Kirk sat in his chair, thinking. There were very few reasons that Spock wouldn't answer his communicator, and none of them were good. He closed his eyes.

"Have Bones and two security personnel meet me in the transporter room Uhura, we're going down." He got into the lift and it began speeding toward the transporter room, stopping to pick up McCoy, who looked displeased.

"And why do you need me down there? I'm in the middle of some pretty important biochemical research and I-" But Kirk cut him off.

"The landing party isn't answering their communicators." McCoy's eyebrows went up.

"Spock is leading that landing party, why would they..." But he trailed off and paled when he realized what that meant.

"Madeleine is down there!" Kirk nodded.

"And Lia." He said quietly. He very much hoped that nothing unfortunate had happened to them, that maybe they were so caught up in their study that they didn't answer...but he knew the likelihood of that to be very small indeed. He closed his eyes. That girl was going to be the death of him, he just knew it. He straightened as the lift stopped, and he nodded toward the two security guards beaming down with them. They stepped onto the platform and he nodded grimly.

"Energize."

-/-

"Look I'm telling you, we're not witches. I never even got my acceptance letter from Hogwarts! How can I be a witch without my acceptance letter?" Lia tried getting out of the rope tying her hands together to hit Maddy. She was not helping.

"Would you shut up!" She tried undoing the knots again. She, Maddy, Spock, and the three red shirts were being led to their trial by a group of angry townsfolk with pitchforks. The red shirts had tried to fight them off, but they were beaten back by shovels, rakes, pitchforks, and buckets. One woman even used a cast iron skillet, and the red shirt hit with it still looked woozy. They were led into the town hall and made to stand in front of the townspeople, who filed in and filled the seats and took all the standing space. Lia wrinkled her nose. These people didn't have showers, and the smell was strong in an enclosed space. From the slight change of Spock's facial expression, she would wager he felt the same. A somber man in all black stood in front of them and started reading from a scroll.

"You have here by been charged with the following crimes: witchcraft, conspiracy of witchcraft, association and employment of the devil, corruption of the youth, and indecent exposure. It shall be noted that the last offence is only in regards to the women. How do you plead?"

"Your face." Lia smacked Maddy's arm.

"Shhh!" Maddy shrugged, but Spock put a hand out and she shut her mouth.

"There has been a misunderstanding. We are Starfleet personnel, here to affirm findings of a previous party, in order to negotiate a mining treaty. We also-" But he was cut off by angry townsfolk.

"He's a witch! Burn 'im! Burn the witch!" His eyebrow went up and Maddy sighed. There was no way Spock was going to sway a bunch of townsfolk, he was just too..._alien._ She cleared her throat.

"Alright, here me out people. How do you know someone is a witch?" The people got quiet and someone from the back spoke up.

"They do magic!" Maddy nodded.

"True, but how else?" Everyone was quiet again.

"...They burn?" She pointed to the person who spoke up.

"Good! And what do you burn apart from witches?"

"More witches!" Maddy momentarily lost steam. They really wanted to burn them.

"No. What else?" Everyone grew quiet again trying to think of what else you burned.

"Wood?"

"Yes. So if witches burn then logically they must be made of wood." The villagers started muttering to themselves, while Spock tried not to cringe at Maddy's use of the word logic.

"Sounds reasonable."

"Yes. And what else does wood do?"

"Burn!"

"We have that already. How about this when you throw wood in a lake what does it do?"

"It floats. It floats!"

"Very good! And what else floats in water?"

"Bread!"

"Tiny rocks!"

"Leaves!"

"A duck!" Lia was the one that said it. Maddy gave her a sideways glance and grinned. Good she knew where she was going with this.

"Right. So if witches are made of wood and both wood and ducks float, then..."

"Throw them into the water!" Maddy pointed to that person.

"Not the answer I'm looking for. No, if wood and ducks float then they must weigh the same, so..." She trailed off she wanted them to come to their own conclusions.

"...Witches must weigh the same as a duck?"

"Yes! And if we don't weigh the same as a duck then we must not be witches!" Maddy grinned at her logic and prayed that the townsfolk would go along with it. There was no way any of them weighed the same as a duck. Spock, meanwhile, was trying to keep his head from hurting at Maddy's astounding lack of logic. She was worse than the Doctor. He was going to have to sit down with her and have a nice long discussion about logic when they were back on the ship. Spock broke his train of thoughts when the people of the town started speaking again.

"Makes sense. To the scales!"

"The scales!" The six of them were led to a tall scale made of wood with wicker baskets. Lia leaned over to Maddy and whispered in her ear.

"You know in the movie she ended up weighing the same as a duck." Maddy shook her head.

"There is _no _way we are going to weigh the same as a duck." The first red shirt was lead up to the scales and forced into the basket, a duck was placed in the second basket. The blocks were removed and the basket with the red shirt in it sunk to the ground. The ground crew cheered and the townspeople booed. The second and third red shirts were weighed with the same result. Maddy was looking extremely pleased with herself.

"See, we'll be safe and back on the Enterprise before you know it." Maddy was about to continue when the duck flew off the scale. "Oh see, now they can't even weigh us. We're golden." The judge spoke over Maddy's voice and called into the crowd.

"Mary-Lou Ellen, fetch your duck."

"Aye!" A plump women cried from the crowd and returned with her duck. The girl's gaped at it in horror.

"That's your duck?" The duck looked like more like a turkey and was about the same size as a small child.

"You can't use that duck!"

"Why not, are you afraid witch?" Maddy clenched her jaw and didn't answer. She tried calming herself down, despite the increased size she was still positive she weighed more than a duck. It was a duck, and she was American. She weighed more than it. She was led to the scales first and weighed. She was wrong.

"Aw shit." She weighed the same as the enlarged duck.

"She's a witch!" She was dragged out of the basket and towards some villagers with pitchforks.

"Wait!" She struggled and broke loose before addressing the crowd. "You can't burn me!..." She racked her brain for a reason to not be burned, and ended up saying the first thing she could think of. "I'm pregnant!" Everyone paused. Maddy looked over at Spock and Lia, both of whom had their eyebrows raised. "It's true I'm with child and so is Lia!"

"Huh?" Lia looked truly bewildered.

"It's true! And Spock's the father!" Spock's eyebrow raised higher. "Spock's the father so you can't burn him either or else our babies won't have a father, and then they'll grow up in a broken family and be more likely to join a gang and do drugs!" Maddy was grasping at straws, but the townspeople seemed to be buying it. "If you burn us then you condemn two innocent children as well!" This seemed to dissipate the anger of the crowd. One of the men with pitchforks spoke.

"But you're a witch." Maddy paused and gave it some thought.

"Is there something you can do that won't kill us?"

"Hang them?"

"No. That would kill us."

"Throw them in jail!" Maddy nodded.

"Throwing us in jail is good." Kirk and McCoy would have no trouble getting them out of jail. An woman stepped forward holding a baby with a small child by her side.

"I do not want my children raised in a town with witches. Imprisoned or not." There was a general consensus with the statement. No one wanted to live with witches and Spock.

"I know!" A voice from the crowd called out, a young man came up and spoke quietly with the judge. Spock's eyebrow went up as he listened. They were speaking too softly for anyone but Spock to hear. The judge nodded and faced the crowd.

"Smithy Jones has suggested that they meet the same fate as Jake Badmin the snake oil salesmen." The crowd seemed to agree with the idea and Spock, Lia, and Maddy were led away again.

"Where are we going?" No one answered Lia's question, so she turned around and looked at Spock over her shoulder. "What did they say?"

"Apparently Mr. Badmin was a confidence man that the people of this town banished." Lia was slightly relieved, being banished wasn't that bad. "By setting him a drift at sea."

"What?" Now, Lia was worried. Well, at least she could swim.

-/-

"This is where we lost their signal." Kirk glanced around, they were in the middle of what looked like a village from puritan America. And it was empty.

"Where are the townsfolk?" The red shirt shrugged and continued his security detail. McCoy crossed his arms.

"I don't like this Jim, I don't like this at all." Kirk silently agreed. It was eerily quiet, as if the whole place was holding its breath. Suddenly, he saw a flash in one of the windows. He motioned to the security guards and Bones, and they snuck carefully over to the small storefront. One of the red shirts opened the door, pointing his phaser at...a little girl. He lowered it immediately and Kirk crouched down next to her.

"Could you tell me where everyone is, where your parents are?" She nodded, bobbing her head.

"To get rid of the witches! Mommy and daddy and everyone cept me and Sarah went." It was then he noticed an older girl around the corner. She walked stiffly toward them, and narrowed her eyes.

"You're dressed like them! Get back Meggy, they're witches too!" She grabbed the girl, likely her sister, and moved further into the house. Kirk made no move to follow them, and McCoy grabbed his arm.

"Jim-"

"I know, come on." People dressed like them, the landing party. His face grim, he turned to the others. "Phasers on stun, where did they take the...other witches?" The girl pointed.

"To the sea, where you'll go too!" She obviously meant that as a threat, and Kirk took it seriously. The villagers could come back at any time. He nodded toward the others.

"We have to get there-now." They left the hut, keeping out of sight, heading for the coast, where Kirk was sure the landing party was-where Lia was. He only hoped they weren't too late.

-/-

"You know, stuff like this didn't happen in Deep Space Nine." Maddy stared at the ocean. She, Spock, and Lia had been set adrift on a small raft. They could no longer see land, but the villagers had at least been nice enough to provide them with some water and food for the babies.

"Stuff like this wouldn't happen if you hadn't decided that our best defense was the Monty Python witch trial."

"I would have used the Wookie defense from South Park, but I don't think they would have gotten the cultural reference." Spock was attempting to drown out the noise of the two girls and ascertain their location by calculating the strength of the waves, the direction of the current, and the present setting of the sun. Since they had been relieved of their communicators, the best way to search for them would be to scan for tachyons, Lia and Maddy would show up immediately. He looked over at the chatting girls and resisted the urge to sigh. Hopefully, they would hurry.

-/-

Jim Kirk could not say that he had never yelled at his crew. It was something he tried to avoid, but sometimes the stress of the situation would get to him and he would shout. For this mission though, he knew it was best to keep his temper in check. The townspeople had greeted him and his crew with nothing but suspicion and hostility. They immediately started shouting accusations of witchcraft and Kirk sighed, obviously, this is what the landing party went through.

"What did you do with our companions?" The crowd quieted slightly.

"The demon and his evil brides have been set adrift! But none of you are women who are pregnant, so we can burn them!" They all cheered and went at them with pitchforks while Kirk and McCoy's heads reeled. Evil brides? Pregnant?

"Now see here! None of our people are demons or pregnant! I would know, I'm a doctor dammit!"

"Bones." Kirk tried calming his CMO down. "Bones I don't think now's the time for that."

"And what do you mean you've set them adrift? Get that out of my face!" McCoy angrily shoved a pitchfork away from his head. Kirk took out his phaser to defend himself, but another one of the townsfolk was faster and impaled his hand with his pitchfork, making him drop his phaser.

"AH!"

"Jim!" Kirk clutched his arm to his body, as McCoy tried to examine it.

"Hold it right there!" The three red shirts that had been found innocent of witchcraft appeared behind the villagers holding muskets. One of them fired into the air.

"Everyone return to your homes!" One of the villagers looked like he was going to challenge the red shirts but a musket in his face convinced him differently. The crowd slowly started dissipating as the townspeople returned to their homes.

"Captain." Kirk straightened his posture and grinned at the lead red shirt.

"Lieutenant, remind me to recommend you for a commendation when this is over."

"Sir."

"Now, where's Mr. Spock and the other two ensigns?" The red shirts were quiet. "Well?"

"Jim, I want to get you to sick bay and take a look at your hand, they can tell you there." Dr. McCoy tried diffusing some of the obvious anger and panic that was bubbling up inside Kirk.

"Bones, I want to know what happened to my crew."

"So do I, but I need to fix your hand first." He reluctantly agreed, and they beamed up to the Enterprise. Kirk grilled the red shirts on the way to medbay.

"Alright, tell me exactly what happened." The red shirts looked at one another, finally one cleared his throat.

"Well, it went like this..."

-/-

"Hold on!" Lia grabbed Maddy's hand and held on tight, her other hand holding onto the side of their wooden raft. They had drifted into some rough waters, and their little raft had almost come apart. Spock was doing his best to tighten the ropes that held it together, while Maddy and Lia focused on not being thrown overboard by the force of the waves. Lia pulled Maddy back on the raft, panting, and fell against Spock.

"Sorry." They braced themselves for the next wave, when Lia started shouting.

"An island! Land ho!" Maddy cheered, and Spock looked up from the ropes he was tying.

"Indeed." They were headed toward it, but soon it became apparent they would have to direct it to get it to shore. "I will need each of you to get on a different side of the raft and row while I attempt to steer us to a safe docking area." The girls nodded and after some trial and error, fell into rhythm and brought their raft to land. The girls jumped out when they hit the beach and with Spock, pulled the raft higher onto land. Spock stood up and surveyed the island. It was lush with various types of plants. The beach was sandy and there were what appeared to be palm trees.

"This is most illogical." Lia looked up from the raft, where she was unloading the supplies.

"What is?"

"This island appears to be tropical, but from my calculations we did not travel far enough for the climate to have changed in such a way."

"You're right."

"Hey, don't look a gift horse in the mouth." Maddy appeared next to Lia and put in her two cents. "Would you rather have landed on some rocky precipice with no plant life or shelter from the weather? I think this is pretty nice. Besides, this will be a good place to raise the children." Maddy stripped off her tights and put her feet in the sand. "Let's check it out." Spock nodded.

"Our first course of action should be to secure shelter, then find a source of fresh water." Maddy put her boots back on.

"Kay." She jumped up and followed Spock, Lia fell into pace beside her.

"Do you know you listen to Spock more than anyone else I've ever seen you interact with?"

"I would follow Spock to hell and back and assume he'd take the most logical route." Lia silently agreed. She had faith Spock would figure a way off this island.

-/-

"Let me see if I understand this correctly, Ensign Flint claimed she and Lia were pregnant so the people of the town would not burn them, but send them adrift in the ocean?"

"That is correct sir." Beside him Bones was laughing quietly.

"That's something Madeline would do." Kirk gave him a mild glare. They weren't out of this yet. McCoy finally finished healing and bandaging his hand, and Kirk jumped up and pushed the wall comm.

"Chekov here sir." Kirk nodded, Chekov was science officer in Spock's stead.

"Chekov, start scanning the planet for tachyons, I'm looking for two specific fields." He could practically feel Chekov frown.

"Tachyons, sir?"

"Tachyons, report your results as soon as you get them."

"Aye Keptain." Kirk turned and faced the still chuckling McCoy.

"I wouldn't be laughing so much if I were you Bones."

"And why is that Jim?" Now it was Kirk's turn to look smug.

"Well, after all she did say _Spock _was the father."


	12. Woe of Spock

Woe of Spock

First Officer's Log, Supplemental: After being tried and convicted of witchcraft, myself and the two Ensigns Acacia and Flint have been sent adrift and marooned on a lone island in the middle of this planet's ocean. It has been three days and I admit to being at somewhat of a loss as to why it has taken the Enterprise this long to locate our position.

I have found that the two Ensigns know a surprisingly large amount of survival information. When asked, Ensign Flint informed me that she has learned all this information from someone named Bear Grylls. I assume that is a specialist from her home. Though we have found a source of fresh water and have built a shelter, both Ensigns are now attempting to build a more elaborate shelter in the form of a tree house modeled after what Ensign Acacia described to me as the tree house from Swiss Family Robison. They seem to have adapted well. I am currently in the process of devising a way to signal the Enterprise to our location.

"How many is that now?"

"Thirty two, sir." Kirk sighed and sat back in his chair. Turns out, this planet had naturally occurring tachyon fields appearing all over the surface, and they were forced to investigate every one, hoping that they would finally find Lia's and Maddy's. It had been three days, and Kirk was getting anxious. His first officer, his girlfriend, and his friend's girlfriend were all lost somewhere at sea-and counting on him to find them. He admitted to himself it wasn't really Spock he was worried about. Vulcans were hardy, and could go days without water and food. Humans, however, could not, and he had no way of knowing if they had found land somewhere, as there were over one hundred islands off the coast of the mainland and the village they had been sentenced at. He only hoped Spock could take care of the two girls while he searched. He sighed again.

"Alright, keep going."

"Hey Spock, hand me that, will you?" Once Lia and Maddy realized that since they were no longer on the Enterprise and they could address Spock causally, both girls were taking full advantage of the fact. Spock hadn't said anything to the contrary, so they were quite pleased. Lia had asked Spock what his first name was in Vulcan, and surprised both Spock and Maddy when she repeated it after him, correctly. Maddy declared that she must have been a Vulcan in her past life, to which Spock's eyebrows lifted. They quickly changed the subject to avoid being lectured on the logic of that statement.

"You know what I was thinking?"

"No." Lia didn't even look up to acknowledge Maddy's question.

"There are people back home that would have a total fangasm if they were stuck on a deserted island with Spock. And what are we? A Captain's girl and a McCoy fan. People would kill to be in our position." That caught Lia's attention.

"You know it's true." Spock raised an eyebrow at the exchange.

"What do you mean?"

"Spock! Didn't I ever tell you? You are by far the most popular character-er person from Star Trek. _Everyone _knows who you are, and everyone loves you. You have more fangirls then Kirk and McCoy possibly combined. You're hot stuff back home." Spock's eyebrows went up.

"You mean to say that I have the largest fan base of anyone else?" Maddy nodded.

"Yep." Lia wasn't entirely sure, but she got the slightest feeling that Spock was a bit smug. Probably he would hold it over McCoy. That would something worth seeing.

/-/

"How many are left?"

"Seventeen Keptien." Kirk sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. They'd been at this for days and they still had more tachyon fields to search. The stress of the situation was starting to get to him.

"Incoming message from Starfleet."

"On speaker." Admiral Decroix's voice boomed throughout the bridge.

"Captain Kirk, you are needed in the Delta quadrant immediately. We have a security situation on the U.S.S. Independence, you need to transfer the Ambassador from Andoria to your ship and get to Federation Headquarters immediately." Everyone on the bridge stared at Kirk, waiting for his response.

"My first officer and two others of my crew are missing on the planet sir, I need time to locate them." You could almost hear the Admiral frown.

"You have twelve hours Captain. After that, go directly to the Delta quadrant and rendezvous with the U.S.S. Independence." Kirk was stony faced as Uhura ended the connection. He looked around at his crew and waved a hand.

"Well? Next one Chekov." Chekov turned back to his station.

"Aye sir."

"What do you think is taking them so long?" Maddy sighed and poked the fire with a branch. It was night and another day had gone by with no word from the Enterprise. The girls were starting to get worried and they could tell that even Spock was starting to grow concerned.

"I do not know." Maddy prodded the fire again.

"Well this sucks." He didn't even reply and dissect her statement about how that was not logical. Both girls were immediately concerned.

"Spock..." Lia trailed off. He looked over at her and she shrugged.

"I don't know."

"Any luck with the signaling device?"

"I am in need of more materials before I can attempt to contact the Enterprise. I will have to resume my search in the morning."

"You know, Nimoy was on the original Mission Impossible waaaay back when. Maybe you should try honing some of that impossible mission mojo."

"That doesn't make any sense at all."

"No, it does it does! See, Shatner is basically Kirk, if you think about it every single character Shatner's ever played has some Kirk in it. So, if Shatner is Kirk then Nimoy must be Spock and if Shatner's character's has traces of Kirk in them, then Nimoy's characters must have traces of Spock, then applying the transitive property Kirk and Spock should be able to do stuff Nimoy and Shatner could, so then by that logic Spock has Mission Impossible Mojo coursing through his green copper filled veins." Maddy smiled proudly, mentally applauding herself. Lia just looked stunned and if Maddy looked hard enough she could swear Spock was twitching.

"That makes absolutely no sense at all." Maddy didn't let the objections get her down.

"No it totally works." Maddy was about to go on when Spock stood up and covered her mouth.

"You will not speak about logic again, until we are back on the ship and can be taught about logic and how to apply it properly. In fact, you will not speak at all unless imperative."

"It's not that bad."

"You must be silent now."

"But?"

"Shh! Maddy, Spock just told you to be quiet I think you better listen." Lia was grinning like the cat that caught the cannery.

"But-"

"Nope."

"I'm not-"

"I think Spock asked you to be quiet." Maddy opened and closed her mouth trying to think of something to say. She couldn't and settled for glaring at Lia, who continued to grin.

-/-

"There are two left, Keptain." They were a half hour from their deadline, and Kirk was jittery with anxiety.

"Alright, tell Bones to meet me in the transporter room." They had to be at one of these two locations, and he was going down there.

"Bones." He acknowledged McCoy when he came into the transporter room, carrying his med kit. He saw Kirk looking and held it up.

"I just hope I don't have to use it."

"Let's hope we actually find them." McCoy examined his tricorder.

"We're running out of time." Kirk gave McCoy a hard look before speaking.

"I won't leave this planet before I find them, even if it means a court marshal." McCoy nodded seriously.

"Energize."

"Go that way, that way!" Lia and Maddy were running through the jungle, being closely pursued by what looked like a mix between a panther and a bear. They had been trying to help Spock find what he needed for the communicator, but had accidently gotten between a mother bear panther and its young. They had been running ever since.

"It's gonna eat us!" The girls turned left and ran through the trees trying to lose the bear panther. Lia leapt over a fallen log and sprinted ahead of Maddy.

"Move it!" Maddy attempted to leap over the same log and tripped. She face planted into the ground and felt a sharp pain in her ankle. This was it, she thought. She was about to be eaten and she hadn't even made it to the end of the series yet. Just as she was saying her final good-byes and making funeral arrangements in her head she felt someone grab her shoulder and yank her up.

"Of all the times for you to trip." Lia started running again, dragging Maddy with her, who was trying to ignore the stabbing pain in her ankle. They were almost to the beach now, and Maddy started screaming.

"Spock, a bear panther is after us! Run away!" They ran out onto the beach and sprinted toward the water, hoping the bear panther didn't swim, when Spock tackled it from the side. Both girls stopped as he wrestled with it, attempting to get his hands on its head to calm it. At that moment, Kirk, McCoy, and a security team beamed down several meters away. The team rushed over to the girls firing, questions at them. Neither girl answered, transfixed on the scene of Spock wrestling a bear panther. Lia shot a question to Madd,y never taking her eyes off Spock.

"Did you know he could do that?" Maddy shook her head still watching Spock.

"Never came up. Don't think Gene Rodenberry ever imagined something like this." The girls watched as Spock pried the bear panther's jaws apart to keep it from ripping out his throat.

"No, probably not." Kirk and McCoy looked at each other, confused.

"Stun it, make sure you don't hit Commander Spock." The security team nodded, and as soon as Spock rolled on the other side, they stunned the creature. It went still, and Spock got to his feet. Both girls ran over to him.

"Are you okay?"

"That was amazing!"

"Do you need anything?"

"Maybe you should go to med bay." They walked over to Kirk and McCoy, still focused on Spock.

"Spock that was brilliant!" The girls didn't pay any attention to Kirk and McCoy once they reached them. All their attention was on Spock and nothing was going distract them, although Kirk gave it a valiant effort. He took Lia's hand and looked into her eyes.

"Are you alright? I was worried about you." She distractedly waved her hand at him, still fawning over Spock.

"Yeah, yeah. How did you ever learn how to fight like that? I've never seen anything like that before."

"I learned it as a child on Vulcan." Lia temporarily went glassy eyed as she imagined how cute Spock must have been as a child.

"Really? I didn't know they taught stuff like that on Vulcan." Maddy piped in.

"It is standard training for all children on Vulcan." Spock looked at her with a raised eyebrow and Kirk took out his communicator.

"Seven to beam up." They were beamed back onto the Enterprise and the security team left the room. Lia and Maddy let go of Spock so McCoy could take him to sick bay, and they got into the lift. Kirk took Lia's hand again

"Are you sure you're aright?" She nodded.

"I'm fine, really, I just need a shower." He nodded.

"Alright, I need to put in a report, I'll stop by your room later."

"Okay." Maddy was having a similar conversation with McCoy and the lift stopped on their floor. The two girls got out, and just as the lift doors were closing, and Kirk and McCoy caught the last few words of their conversation.

"I know, it was totally hot."

"I know, who knew Spock was so sexy." Kirk and McCoy looked at each other, identical expressions of bewilderment on their faces.

"Spock?" McCoy said weakly.

"Spock."


	13. Come What May

A/N: I realized we didn't add a thank you note to the last chapter, my bad. So thanks to everyone who reviewed 11 and to Senara, Mrs. PavelChekov, estar9821, Kitty243 for reviewing the last chapter. On a side note go see the Green Hornet it kicked major butt.

Come What May

Tonia Barrows was the type of person that always liked to keep busy. As a child she had been in various clubs and sports. Her mother still bragged about how she was the top cookie seller in her Girl Scout troop for three years in a row, and that her soccer team had gone to state twice. When she was in high school she had been on the year book committee and student council. When she entered the Academy she had taken on extra class loads and excelled at them. Yes, she was the type of person that was happiest when she busy, and somehow in this archaic time with its backwards ways, she had managed to find a job that kept her constantly busy, and that was how she liked it.

She had become a personal secretary to a very busy successful lawyer, and she couldn't be happier. Being a PA wasn't all that different from being a yeoman, she reasoned sans the excitement of space travel, it included a lot of the same things, paperwork, organizing, and making sure her superior office kept his head screwed on straight. Her current employer was very different in his management styles then Captain Kirk. No, Robert Hale was the type of person that had to be reminded about his meetings, what time his trials were, to put a shirt on in the morning, and wear shoes, but he never forgot any of his clients. He could still remember a case he took on six years ago, and he still received thank you cards and gifts from his work on his pro bono cases. Tonia could easily say she hadn't met very many people who cared about people as much as Robert did. She snapped herself from that train of thought. It wasn't to say she didn't find her boss attractive, of course she did, but it wasn't professional to think about her boss like that, and Tonia was anything if not professional.

"Hi, Miss Barrows." A gangly red headed boy with freckles and acne pushing a mail cart spoke to Barrows.

"Oh Jimmy, hi."

"Hi!" His voice cracked. Jimmy was a very sweet boy, Barrows thought, a very sweet high school boy with a very obvious crush on her. "I have mail for Mr. Hale." His voice cracked again.

"Thank you, I'll give it to him." She took the mail but Jimmy was still hovering around her. "Yes, Jimmy?" Jimmy blushed, clearly embarrassed at being caught staring.

"Oh, I'm sorry Miss Barrows I'll leave now." Barrows smiled lightly, Jimmy was very sweet if not awkward, but she had a feeling he'd grow out of it soon.

"You can call me Tonia if you want Jimmy." His face brightened with barely contained excitement.

"Really?"

She smiled. "Sure, Jimmy." He smiled again before his excitement died down for a moment, replaced with brief concentration, and then replaced again with excitement.

"Tonia Barrows! I know that name! It's the same name as the Yeomen's in Episode 17 "Shore Leave" in the original Star Trek."

Barrows gave him a confused look. "Star what?"

"Star Trek! Your parents must have been fans, am I right?"

"I've never even heard of Star whatever." Jimmy looked momentarily horrified.

"Never?" Tonia shook her head.

"No, never." Jimmy seemed torn between horror, shock, and embarrassment.

"But a movie came out just last year, and…it's famous! Have you really never heard of Star Trek?" Tonia shook her head. "Not the Enterprise?" Another negative reply from Barrows. "Not even Kirk and Spock and their forbidden love?" That comment got a response, slow horror grew over Barrows' face. Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock and their forbidden love?

"Can I show you?" Jimmy took the keyboard from her and typed something she didn't see into Google. She was still trying to understand what Jimmy was saying when she looked on the monitor and terror washed all over her again. There was Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock and Leonard all standing around the bridge of the Enterprise. She could feel the blood drain from her face.

"What is this?" Jimmy seemed completely oblivious to the fear and apprehension in her voice.

"I told you, it's Star Trek. How can you really not know about this? Jim Kirk and Spock? Everyone knows about Star Trek." She was starting to feel sick. She looked at the screen, there were more images of the Captain, some were of him with Spock and Leonard and some were pictures of fights she'd seen the Captain get in. There were pictures of the Enterprise and the Bridge crew, and oh god there was a picture of her and Leonard. The part of her that still remembered her Starfleet training kicked in. No matter what happened she couldn't let Jimmy or anyone else see that picture of her. She didn't know what would happen, but she _knew _it would be bad. She politely shooed Jimmy away from her desk and told him she needed to get back to work. As soon as his back was turned Tonia minimized the screen and attempted to go back to work.

But still…her fingers were twitching, she wanted to know. She _needed _to know. How was it according to Jimmy everyone knew about the Enterprise? She was in the past, wasn't she? That's what the message from Spock had said. How could anyone know about the Enterprise? It didn't even exist yet! She was confused and she felt sick, but still she couldn't stop herself. She opened the page, clicked on the first link, and started reading.

-/-

"Spock." Kirk paused and turned around to stare at Lia. He had let her sleep, getting ready for his shift silently so that he wouldn't wake her, when she suddenly said Spock's name in her sleep. He watched her roll over, taking the sheets with her, and snuggle with the pillow. Should he be worried? What really went down on that island? Did something happen with her and Spock? "…Give me back my muffins." He stared, then relaxed. Good, it was nothing, just a dream about Spock stealing muffins. Wait, what? Was that a 21st century euphemism? Maybe he really should be worried? He watched her snuggle closer to his pillow.

"Jim." She muttered in her sleep, a small smile gracing her lips. Kirk felt his shoulders relax and gave a small sigh of relief. He bent down and kissed her head before leaving for the bridge.

-/-

Leonard McCoy passed his office, trying to figure out the best approach for what he was about to do. Quite honestly, he wanted to chew that green blooded hobgoblin out and sit Madeline down and demand to know what happened on the planet, but he couldn't. Because even if he felt like he needed to do those things he knew it wasn't right. Madeline had a tendency to joke about everything but some of her comments still bothered him, but at the same time he knew he couldn't demand anything from her when he himself still had certain reservations about their relationship. They needed to talk. At that moment Madeleine herself skipped by, and tapped him on the back.

"Hey, I was looking for you!" He grabbed her hand and she stopped.

"Madeleine, would you like to come in for coffee?"

"Sure, I could never pass up coffee." She followed him into his office and the door slid shut behind them. He went over to the replicator and brought over two steaming mugs of coffee. Madeleine took one and blew on it, trying to cool it down, while McCoy surveyed her over his own cup.

"How are you feeling?"

"Oh just fine, my ankle's all healed up." She took a sip of her coffee and smiled at him. He couldn't help smiling back.

"That's good to hear." He cleared his throat.

"Well, I wanted to talk to you about, us." She stared at him blankly.

"Us?"

"Yes, I think we're moving a bit too fast, considering our age difference." At that Madeleine laughed and waved her hand.

"Don't you worry about that, I don't mind being older than you." McCoy blinked.

"Errr, what?" Madeleine took his hand and gave him an earnest look.

"I don't mind being so much older than you, really. It doesn't bother me, but I can see where you're coming from, not all men are comfortable with cougars."

"Madeline, you're not older than me." Maddy waved her hand, dismissing McCoy's statement.

"Sure I am. I'm like two hundred something years older than you."

"No you're not." McCoy shook his head trying to see where Maddy was coming from. Maddy put a serious face on for her next statement.

"McCoy what year were you born?"

"2227." Maddy gave a serious nod.

"So what, you're 42? Well Doc I was born in 1989 that makes me…" She did a quick calculation on her fingers. "236 years older than you."

"Madeline that's not how it works."

"Sure it is." She gave him another smile and patted his hand. "I've got to go on shift, I'll stop by your room later." She gave him a quick kiss and left the room, leaving McCoy sitting there in disbelief.

Tonia couldn't stop shaking, her head was spinning and she felt sick. How was this possible? How could this world possibly know about the Enterprise? She spent the rest of her afternoon reading everything she could find about this "Star Trek." She learned things she would have never wanted to know. She learned what happens to the Enterprise. She learned what happens after the five year mission. She learned about the Enterprise crews that occurs after her Enterprise. She learned about what happened to Captain Kirk and Commander Spock and Leonard. She learned what happened to Leonard. She bit her lip to keep from crying. She'd been doing that off and on since she started researching. She calmed herself down and took a deep breath, before picking up her phone.

"Janice? We need to talk." She gathered up her stuff and left the building. "It's important, no I'm not at work, I left early. Yeah, meet me at that café on fifth, that one a couple blocks from our place." She bumped into someone as she was walking, and they turned around and shoved her.

"Hey, watch it!" Her phone flew out of her hand as she stumbled off the sidewalk. She turned her head in slow motion and stared with wide eyes at the taxi coming toward her. The driver was talking to his passenger, he hadn't even seen her yet. Why couldn't she move, she felt frozen in place. Someone was screaming, they were screaming at her. She stumbled to her feet, but she was too late. The driver hit the brakes, but she wasn't fast enough. Everything went black.

Maddy tried to keep herself chipper throughout the day. Her conversation with McCoy left her depressed. Despite her positive comments and fake conviction that she was older than him she was finally beginning to understand why he had been distant with her. She changed a slide and examined the cellular structure from some of the plant life that was collected from the planet they were marooned on. It wasn't fair. Kirk was fourteen years older than Lia and neither of them seemed to care. She tried to remain positive but she wasn't sure she could. In the show she always loved McCoy but now that she'd met him in real life, talked to him, kissed him, she knew for sure it would break her heart if he decided to end it.

"What are you doing here?" Maddy gasped and spun around in her seat, her direct superior was giving her a harsh look with his hands on his hips. Maddy stood at attention and saluted.

"Lieutenant Philips."

"At ease. You cadets need to learn to loosen up, this isn't the academy you know." He smiled at her and gave a wink. Maddy found herself smiling back. Philips was always doing things like that, telling everyone to relax and joking with them. She couldn't have asked for a better boss.

"Kay." She relaxed her stance and Philips gave her a mock glare.

"Now what are you doing here?" Maddy gave him a confused look.

"Sir?"

"Maddy, you just returned from a disastrous ground mission, and one of your first too. You were stuck on an island and from what I heard, attacked."

"Yeah, but I'm fine." This time Philips gave her a real glare.

"I don't want to hear it ensign. You are off duty for the next two days." He gave her a smile. "Now go, last I saw a certain doctor was in the rec room."

"Sir." Maddy smiled and left the lab. Once she exited the doors she looked right then left. The rec room was to the left and her room was to the right. She could go to the rec room and talk to McCoy and try to make everything okay again or she could run away and hide. She turned right. She really was a coward, she thought.

She was almost to her room when she felt something wet on her face. She touched her upper lip and looked at what was on her hand. Blood. Her nose was bleeding. She ignored it and was about to enter her room to find a tissue when she collapsed.

Several minutes later, an engineer was heading to the rec room to relax when he found Maddy lying the on the floor, her body bruised and bleeding. He ran to the nearest comm.

"Emergency in corridor C! I need a med team stat!" Chapel quickly messaged McCoy, who ran out of the rec room and stopped in horror.

"Madeleine!"

-/-

"I need an IV over here!"

"I'm getting brain activity, we need to put her under!" Rand stood outside the emergency room with tears running down her face, Jack at her side. Tonia had been hit head on by a taxi, Janice, hearing someone screaming on the other end of the phone, hurried to the last place she knew Tonia to be, to see the place covered with police tape. Her legs were broken, her left arm was dislocated, and she was bleeding internally, they were taking her into surgery now. Janice only prayed it wasn't too late.

"It's going to be alright." Jack hugged her, but Janice wasn't able to return the gesture.

"How do you know that? How do you know she isn't going to die?"

"She isn't going to die." Janice ripped herself away from Jack.

"You don't know that! You don't know if she's going to make it! You don't know anything! I don't know anything! I don't know these doctors! I don't know anything!" She suddenly became quiet. "Tonia's the one that knows everything. She's the one that figures everything out. She's the one that takes care of us. She's…she's my only reminder of a life I don't have anymore. She's my friend." Her voice grew in strength. "So don't tell me everything will be alright, because if Tonia dies then nothing will ever be alright again." She felt Jack's hand on her face, his thumb wiping away her tears.

"I know you're scared right now, but you have to trust that everything's going to be okay. You have to trust the doctors and you have to trust me. I won't let anything bad happen to you Janice." He smiled at her. "I love you." She gave one last cry and flung herself into his arms, taking comfort in his strength.

-/-

"Doctor, you need to rest." McCoy shook his head, and took another sip of his coffee. When Madeleine suddenly dropped in that hallway, she somehow managed to break one of her legs, sprain her shoulder, and rupture her spleen. Not to mention the head trauma. How was this possible? Someone didn't get all these injuries after taking a spill, it just didn't make sense! She was currently in a coma, and no one knew _why._ Lia had been by earlier, McCoy told her that until he knew something, there was no use hanging around, and sent her to her room. He sighed and continued going over Maddy's injuries. He wasn't going to sleep until he knew what the heck happened.

He ran a hand through his hair. "How did this happen?" He looked at Maddy's still form. "Yah had tah go and get sick on me didn't yah? And right after I told yah you were too young." He put his head in his eyes. "And now it looks like you're going to die before me anyway."

"Don't talk like that Bones." McCoy jumped and spun around to see Kirk in the doorway, Spock behind him. He followed them into his office and he sat down.

"Doctor, I believe I have a theory as to what happened to Miss Flint." McCoy looked up at Spock.

"And what might that be?"

"She fell in the corridor and gained multiple injuries, none that could have regularly occurred in that situation, correct?" McCoy nodded, suspicious.

"Yes, so?"

"So what if they are not her injuries?" Kirk and McCoy looked at each other.

"Come again?" Spock crossed his arms.

"It is possible the tachyon fields both women are emitting are still connected to the ones Yeoman Barrows and Yeoman Rand would be emitting, connecting them through time and space." McCoy's eyes widened.

"So you're saying that one of them was hurt, and therefore Maddy was too?" Spock raised an eyebrow.

"More or less, Doctor. If something happened to one of them, it would reflect here." McCoy suddenly went pale and quiet.

"So if whoever it is dies in the past, Maddy dies?" Spock was silent for a moment before nodding.

"It is only a theory Doctor." Kirk nodded to Spock.

"I want you to figure out whether or not your theory is correct Spock, analyze their field readings, do whatever you have too." Spock nodded and left the room, and Kirk turned to McCoy.

"It'll be alright Bones." McCoy sighed.

"I hope so."

Ten minutes later saw Kirk entering his room to see Lia sitting at the table nervously. She'd tried to eat, but had lost her appetite, and looked a bit shaken. She jumped up when Kirk entered the room. He put his hands on her shoulders and she smiled at his touch.

"Hey." He gave her shoulders a squeeze.

"How are you feeling?" Lia shrugged and took his hand.

"I'm fine." Kirk walked around her chair and kneeled down in front of her looking into her eyes.

"No, you're not." Lia looked over to the wall, avoiding Kirk's gaze.

"I'm fine."

"Lia." She looked back at him as he held her hands in his.

"Stuff like this isn't supposed to happen. Isn't it enough that we lost our homes and our families? Now Maddy has to go and do something stupid like being in a coma for no reason. We lost enough. I lost enough; I don't want to lose my friend too." She was crying now. Kirk cupped her face in his hands and gently kissed her.

"Bones is the best doctor in Starfleet. Everything will be fine, you'll see. Maddy will be up and terrorizing the crew in no time." He kissed her forehead and gave her a smile that she weakly returned. "And as for you, I promise if it is in my power to stop, I will never let anything bad happen to you again." Lia hugged him and whispered into his shoulder.

"I know you won't."

-/-

"How is she?" Janice stood talking to Tonia's doctor, Jack had to go on shift and couldn't sit with her any longer.

"We currently have her in a medically induced coma until her head injury heals, if we're lucky, we'll be able to move her to ICU." Janice nodded. "I have your number, if anything changes, we'll call you and let you know." She shook the doctor's hand and left the hospital, getting into a taxi, she told the taxi to take her to Jack's place. She didn't want to stay in her and Tonia's place alone tonight. Just being in Jack's apartment, even though he wasn't there, would comfort her.

She pulled out a spare key Jack gave her and opened the door to his apartment. She turned on all the lights, not wanting to be alone in the dark. She shook her head. She should be better than this, stronger than this, the academy taught her better. Still, controlling her emotions in a crisis had never been something she excelled at. That was one of the reasons she was taken off of ground missions, her emotions were a liability.

Tonia was the strong one. Janice felt pinpricks in her eyes, she blinked them back, she didn't want to cry anymore today. She grabbed a glass of water and took a sip. She couldn't imagine this world without Tonia. She felt the tears again. On the Enterprise they had never really been friends, more like working acquaintances. They would be polite to one another, but Tonia was never someone she thought she could really ever be friends with, and now she was devastated at the thought of losing her.

"I don't even know what you were going to tell me." She took a shaky breath and went into Jack's room and took off her shoes and climbed into his bed. She just wanted to go to sleep and then wake up to Tonia's alarm and talk over coffee. She closed her eyes, tears still streaming down her face.

-/-

"Where am I?" Maddy looked around. She was in a room, at least she thought she was, though there were no doors and no walls. "Hello?" To her surprise, she got an answer.

"Hello?" A woman appeared several meters away, she was wearing a nice blouse and a pencil skirt, but Maddy gasped when she turned around.

"You!" The woman looked confused.

"Do I know you?" Maddy swallowed and nodded. She'd recognize Tonia Barrows anywhere.

"Not exactly." Tonia walked up to Maddy and stared at her.

"No wait, I do know you, you're the one I switched with, aren't you?" Maddy blinked in surprise.

"I—yes." Tonia nodded.

"I knew it."

"How?" Tonia shifted uncomfortably.

"I saw a picture of you at your parent's home." Maddy was momentarily excited by the news.

"My parents! Did you meet them? How are they? Did they look alright? Was Tom and his wife with them? I missed the wedding." Maddy noticed the look on Barrows face and her excitement died down. "…Do they know what happened to me?" Tonia shook her head.

"I tried to explain, but I was thrown out of your house…they think you're in Witness Protection." Maddy nodded.

"Well I guess it's better than thinking I'm dead." Maddy looked at Tonia. "Kirk informed your family that you were lost in a transporter accident."

Tonia looked saddened. "I see….I was on my way down to visit them when…it happened." Maddy grew quiet before suddenly speaking.

"I'm sorry!" Tonia looked at her, confused for a moment.

"What for, it wasn't your fault this happened."

Maddy shook her head. "Yes, it is. I always wanted this to happen. I always wanted to end up in a fandom, that's what I spent my birthday wishes and 11:11 wishes on. It was all I really wanted." Her voice had gotten quiet near the end, before growing stronger. "But not like this! I never wanted anyone to suffer. I never wanted anyone to lose anything! I never wanted anyone to lose their world just so I could live in it." Maddy felt like crying. "I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry." Tonia was quiet for a moment.

"…Are you happy on the Enterprise?" Maddy wanted to avoid answering the question.

"…Yes…are you?"

Tonia gave her a sad smile. "I think I could be." Maddy shifted uncomfortably, what she supposed to say now? She looked around the room again.

"Are we dead?" Maddy questioned. She didn't feel dead, but she didn't really know what being dead was supposed to feel like.

"I don't know. I was hit by a car."

"I got a bloody nose." She wanted to hit herself the moment the words were out of her mouth. What a stupid thing to say! "Maybe we're in Limbo?"

"I don't know."

"I hope we're not dead that would really put a damper on my day." Maddy was surprised when Tonia snorted, she didn't think women from Star Trek were capable of anything but grace.

"Same." Maddy was silent for a moment before asking the question that was on both their minds.

"If this is Limbo, then what happens when we leave? There really are only two options. We go back or…" She trailed off.

"We die." They were both quiet, neither of them wanted to accept the reality of their situation. After a few minutes, or maybe it was hours, Maddy had no way to tell time, Tonia looked at Maddy seriously and asked.

"Tell me what you know about Star Trek." Maddy looked up.

"Huh. I wondered how long it would take the two of you to find out about it." She avoided answering the question.

"So?"

"Spock thinks that there is a somewhat physic link between our two worlds and someone, Gene Rodenberry." She filled in. "Was able to pick up on it back in the sixties. He probably thought it was his own creation. That's what everyone thinks."

"Why do the actors look the same as the people in my world?"

Maddy shrugged. "Dimensional doppelgangers?" Both were silent for a moment before Barrows exploded.

"Do you know what this means?" She didn't let Maddy answer. "I know things no one should! I know how people die! I know what happens to Captain Kirk and Commander Spock. I know what happens to Janice. The only thing I don't know is what happens to me."

"No one really knows….would you even want to know?"

"I don't know, but that doesn't change the fact that I know about everything else. Do you have any idea what that's like? To know what happens and be powerless to stop it?"

"Yeah, I do." Tonia grew quiet, her voice softened.

"You do don't you? How can you live like that? Don't you want to change things?" Maddy nodded.

"Every day. I want to prevent so many things, but I know if I do, if I change one thing, then events won't play out and millions of people will die and it will be _my _fault." She skipped a beat. "It kinda sucks." Tonia cocked an eyebrow at her.

"You're one of those people that doesn't like to be serious, aren't you?"

"You have no idea. My boyfriend told me our ages were too different for things to work out and I told him I didn't mind being two hundred years older than him."

"Who's your boyfriend?" Maddy looked to the side and rubbed her nose.

"Oh just a random crew member. What about you? Is there someone special waiting for you?" Tonia blushed.

"Well, I do think my boss is very attractive." Maddy smiled at her.

"If we don't die you should make a move." Tonia gave her a confused look.

"Make a move?"

"Right sorry, slang. Tell him."

"Oh I couldn't do that."

Maddy scoffed. "Sure you can. You've traveled in space, and live in a different world than your own, you can tell your boss he's cute." Maddy gasped suddenly and Tonia looked up surprised.

"What?"

"Look at your hands." Tonia held her hands up, she could see through them. Maddy looked at hers, the same thing was happening. They were both fading from view. Maddy was panic stricken, but before she completely faded away she called out to Barrows.

"I'm sorry!" Barrows returned her call.

"I forgive you." Both women faded from sight.


	14. As the World Falls Down

A/N: Oh wow! You guys rock! Fifty reviews! That's amazing thank you so much for all your reviews and support. They really keep us going. Thank you: unknown to love, Mrs. PavelChekov, Kitty243, amazontraveler and estar9821 for reviewing the last chapter and all the other ones you have reviewed. Thank you all so much.

As the World Falls Down

"What happened?" Lia stood next to Maddy's bedside alongside Kirk and McCoy, her hand over her mouth. For a second, Maddy had flatlined, then her heart started beating again, albeit slowly. Kirk wrapped his arms around Lia, who was stiff in fear. She swallowed and leaned against him. For a second, she had really thought her friend was gone.

"I'm not sure, Nurse!" McCoy was white as well, and called Chapel in to increase the fluid in her IV. Kirk just held onto Lia, who still hadn't relaxed.

"Hey, it's alright, it's going to be okay." She didn't answer him, though she did relax slightly. It was then Maddy's heart monitor started going crazy again.

"No, no no!" McCoy raced over to Maddy and started adjusting her medication while Kirk pulled Lia out of his way.

"Give him some space, Bones knows what to do." He tugged her out of the sickbay, Lia's eyes still focused on Maddy's erratic heart monitor.

-/-

When Maddy was younger she loved spending time with her family: camping trips, ball games, movie nights, it was always fun and always special, but as she got older, her desire to spend time with her family lessened. Instead, it was days at the mall and parties with friends became her norm. When she left for college, she never called as often as she should have. The last time she talked to her parents, she didn't tell them _I love you,_ didn't let them know how much she appreciated everything they did for her, no, she told them she couldn't talk right now, and needed to hang up. She didn't even get to say good-bye. Now, she'll never be able to say good-bye.

-/-

"…And lilies from…Jimmy." Janice sat next to Tonia's bed, reading get well cards and telling Tonia all about who sent her what, acting like Tonia could hear her. She made a list of who Tonia had to send thank you cards to when she woke up. Janice smiled only a little, doing this made her honestly believe that Tonia would get better and things would go back to normal. Tonia's heart monitor made an odd sound, and Janice turned around to look at it. Her heartbeat was getting erratic, she hurriedly pushed the nurse button and stood up, hovering over Tonia's bed.

"What's happened?" The nurse hurried in and took one look at the heart monitor and called for the doctor.

"She's going into cardiac arrest, I need some help here!" Janice moved back, her eyes still on Tonia, who was being surrounded by nurses and her doctor.

"No." She whispered. "No, it can't end, not like this, you can't die, YOU CAN'T DIE!" She burst into tears and someone took her by the shoulders and guided her out of the room. She turned as she was being led out of the room to see Tonia lying pale and still on the bed.

-/-

Sitting under the blankets with her sister telling ghost stories, making dinner with her mother, piggy-back rides with her father, riding on her first boyfriend's speeder bike, her days at the academy, going on double dates with her best friend, setting sail among the stars and exploring the galaxy, the butterflies he gives her when he smiles. These are things she'll never have again…

As Tonia's life flashed before her eyes, she felt her body become heavy, it was becoming hard to breathe….and she felt the pain blooming in her chest…..this was it. She was going to die, and with her, Maddy as well. It was her fault, her fault she hadn't been more careful. And now someone else is going to suffer for it.

-/-

"Live damn it, live!" McCoy was beside himself, doing everything he could think of to save Maddy's life. She was having a heart attack, and nothing he did seemed to have an effect. He kicked the wall in frustration.

"Damn it Madeleine, I never even got to tell you…." He drifted off and ran a hand over his haggard face. "Never even got to tell you that I love you…."

-/-

"Get the defibrillator, we're losing her!" A nurse quickly handed the defibrillator to the doctor, who put the pads on Tonia's chest.

"Clear!" They gave her a jolt, but she stayed still and unresponsive.

"Again!" Still no response, the blare of the machine that should be recording her heart beat loud and blaring out a single tone. The doctor sighed and wiped her forehead, she looked up at the clock and nodded to her nurse.

"Time of death, 10:47." She took her gloves off and threw them into the trash. She went outside the room and saw the woman's friend standing outside the door, giving her a broken distressed look.

"Tonia?" She asked.

"I'm sorry. You're friend went into cardiac arrest and we lost her." Janice lost it and gave a sorrow filled wail before she started crying again. The doctor shook her head and led Janice to a bench and sat her down.

"Would you like me to get Dr. Collins for you?" Janice shook her head.

"No, no, there's nothing he can do. There's nothing anyone can do." Silent tears streamed down her face as the doctor left her alone.

-/-

Maddy's heart monitor flat lined and she stopped breathing.

"No! Dammit, don't you dare!" McCoy yelled as he pumped on her heart, resorting to an ancient technique of reviving a patient.

"One. Two. Three." He beat on her heart, nothing changing. "No! No! No!" He paused for only a brief second before yelling for Chapel.

"Nurse I need 50 cc of cordrazine." She gave him a shocked look.

"Doctor, you know what happened last time."

"Dammit Chapel!" McCoy snapped. "If you can't do what I tell you to then get me a nurse that can!" Chapel nodded before retrieving the cordrazine. McCoy grabbed it out of her hand before injecting it into Maddy.

"If this doesn't work, nothing will." Both of them watched the heart monitor in apprehension. "Work, please work." McCoy willed Maddy's heart to start again. "Dammit Madeline, don't do this to me!" McCoy stood almost trembling with anxiety as he stared at Maddy's heart monitor. She couldn't leave him, not now, not this way…._For god's sake_, he prayed silently, _don't do this, let her __**live. **_Chapel bit her lip and looked at McCoy with sympathy.

"Doctor, you have to call it."

"No, no, there's still hope, we just have to wait for the cordrazine, we have to wait!" He yelled at her, and Chapel shook her head and yelled back.

"She's gone!"

"No she, no….." He slumped in despair, his Madeleine, dead, it couldn't be, it just couldn't. He distantly heard Chapel record her time of death as he stood beside her bedside. Why did it have to end this way, why? He brushed her hair off her pale face and leaned down, pressing one last kiss to her lips.

"I'm so sorry."

_Beep_.

McCoy looked up, startled at the sound of the heart monitor.

_Beep…beep…beep._

He jumped to his feet. Her heart was beating again! He gave a whoop of joy and hugged Chapel in his excitement before returning all his attention to Maddy's heart monitor.

"Doctor, the cordrazine, it worked!" Chapel sounded shocked. Both watched as Maddy's heart beat became stable and returned to normal. McCoy let out a breath of relief and held Maddy's hand.

"Thank you."

-/-

"So young too." A nurse shook her head, while pulling the sheet over Tonia's head. She hated this part of her job. She hated not being able to save everyone. "You poor thing." She was about to fill out her death certificate when she heard it.

_Beep. _

She forgot to remove the heart monitor. She watched the heart monitor, then checked Barrows pulse. She put her hand near Tonia's nose, she was breathing. She wasn't dead!

_Beep…beep…beep._

The nurse ran out of the room. "Doctor! Doctor!" Two doctors turned around and focused their attention on the nurse.

"Nurse, what's wrong?"

"The patient in room 105 has a heartbeat."

"105 was just pronounced dead."

"I checked her pulse myself. She's not dead!" Both doctors and the nurse rushed into the room. Tonia's EKG was normal. Everyone in the room was shocked. The nurse gasped.

"It's a miracle." The doctors were stunned.

"It certainly is something." One of the nurses grabbed the phone to call Janice, who was downstairs with Jack, while the other one tore up the death certificate as Tonia's heart continued to beat normally. A minute later Janice and Jack rushed into the room, Janice in tears.

"Oh thank goodness, thank goodness!" She took Tonia's hand and cried in relief.

"Thank you."

-/-

Lia slumped in relief as she heard McCoy happily tell Kirk through the comm that Maddy was alright. She jumped to her feet and joined Kirk at the comm.

"Can we see her yet?"

"She's still asleep, I'll tell you as soon as she wakes up." Lia pushed her hair behind her ear and sighed as Kirk wrapped his arms around her from behind.

"Good, yeah, thanks." She ended the conversation and leaned back against Kirk's chest in relief. He smiled and whispered in her ear.

"I told you everything would be alright." She turned around and kissed him before whispering back.

"I know you did."

Several hours later saw McCoy still holding Maddy's hand, when her eyelids began fluttering. He leaned forward eagerly.

"Madeleine, Madeleine can you hear me?" Her eyes opened slowly, and she squinted at the light. "Hey." He smiled widely at her. She smiled weakly back.

"Hey." She whispered. "I like the beard." McCoy ran a hand over his face; he hadn't shaved since Maddy had fallen ill.

"Um, thank you?" She weakly smiled at him.

"It's hot." She closed her eyes again, tired. McCoy wasn't sure what she meant, it must have been another one of her 21st century sayings.

"I don't feel good." He quickly adjusted her medication.

"That should help, you should probably get some more rest." Maddy smiled again and closed her eyes.

"Okay." She said sleepily, and McCoy kissed her forehead.

"Sleep well."

"Leonard," McCoy paused in the doorway. Maddy had never called him by his first name before. "Thank you." She closed her eyes again and fell asleep.

-/-

"…Should be waking up soon…a miracle… she survived." Tonia heard muffled voices and felt sunlight on her eyes. Suddenly, Janice appeared in her line of vision.

"You're awake, she's awake!" She hugged her enthusiastically and Tonia winced. Janice let go and gave her an apologetic look. "Sorry, I'm just so happy you're okay!" Tonia smiled.

"Me too." Jack appeared next to Janice and took her hand. Tonia smiled, at least Janice had Jack to keep her company while she was out.

"I was so worried about you. You've been in a coma for three days." Tonia looked startled at the news.

"Three days?" Janice nodded and squeezed Tonia's hand.

"Yes, but don't worry, the doctors say you'll be fine now."

"Yeah." Tonia felt confused, she supposed that Maddy must be okay now too, that was good. Then why did she feel so bad? She swallowed and closed her eyes, and heard Jack lead Janice out of the room, saying she needed her rest. After seeing Maddy she really wanted to go home, to her real home, not the apartment she shared with Janice. She wanted to go back to the Enterprise. She wanted to go back to where she belonged. She may have forgiven Maddy, but that didn't mean she was okay with it. She felt tears stream down her face and for the first time in a long time she allowed herself to cry.

-/-

Maddy sat alone in the sickbay after finding out that McCoy had barely slept in the past three days. She told him to go away and come back after he'd slept a proper seven hours. She figured he might only stay away for about three hours. She stared blankly at the wall, trying to figure out what to do now. It was easy to pretend that no one got hurt when she thought of Barrows as just a TV character, but she wasn't, she was a real breathing, living person, whose life she had destroyed. What was she supposed to do now? How could she let things go back to the way they were, when she was just in a constant high from being in her favorite sci-fi show? How could she go back to running around and having fun when she knew that Barrows was struggling to live in a world she knew nothing about? How could she go back to being carefree now? Barrows may have forgiven her but that didn't absolve her of her guilt.

-/-

"Don't you worry, he'll come around soon." Chapel was sitting at Maddy's bedside, doing her makeup. She closed her eyes while Chapel brushed on some eyeshadow. After Maddy was able to get up, she scared herself looking at the mirror in the bathroom, and asked Chapel if she had any concealer. It was stupid, but she didn't like McCoy seeing her at anything other than her best. So here she was, Chapel now adding blush to her cheeks. She forgot Chapel was a little heavy handed with the makeup.

"I think that's enough." Chapel put the blush in a little makeup bag and set it on the table next to the bed.

"There you go sweetie." She handed Maddy a mirror and Maddy tried not to grimace when she saw how much makeup Chapel used on her. She was worried if she started crying she'd end up looking like the Joker.

"Um, thanks." She put the mirror down and subtly tried rubbing some of the lipstick off. "Do you know when I can get out of here?" She had been stuck in the sickbay for three days and she was starting to feel antsy. If she didn't get released sometime soon she was going to have to break out of the sickbay and hide from the medical staff. Her jailbreak thoughts were brought to a halt when she heard the medbay doors open.

"Yo." Lia stepped into the sickbay and the doors shut behind her. She looked at Maddy. "You look like a beat up hooker." She still had some bandages around her shoulder and some bruises on her face from when she fell. Her leg was still broken despite McCoy's attempts to use a bone mending serum. Apparently the makeup hadn't done the trick.

"Gee thanks." Lia pulled a chair out and sat next to Maddy's bed.

"What up?"

"I am a prisoner of my own boyfriend, how do you think?" McCoy wasn't letting Maddy go for another two days, at least. These beds were **not **that comfortable. She winced and fluffed up her pillow. It wouldn't be so bad if McCoy was here keeping her company, but he was currently on an away mission, having fun somewhere in the fresh air, while she was stuck in an uncomfortable bed.

"I'm getting out of this place, get my crutches." Lia handed them to her and Maddy gingerly stood up. She nodded to the door.

"Let's go." They took off down the hallway, Maddy getting strange looks for her hospital outfit, which had pants, thank god, and her crutches. They walked to the lift and zoomed off toward Maddy's floor.

"I'm gonna take a real shower and put on real pants and a real top with a real bra!" Maddy attempted to do a victory dance, but was crippled in her attempt due to her injuries. "Think about it Lia, a real bra!"

"They are the greatest thing ever, it's true." Lia nodded in agreement.

"Yep, a real bra for me." She sang and attempted to dance again.

"Fascinating." Both girls screamed and Maddy lightly hit Spock on the arm.

"Dammit, why are you always here!" Spock raised an eyebrow and Lia tried not to laugh. She was not embarrassed about talking about bras in front of Spock, she really had no shame, but Maddy's antics in front of Spock were laugh worthy.

"Should you not be in the sickbay, Miss Flint?" Spock ignored her outburst.

"Spock have you ever been stuck in the medbay with McCoy? It's terrible. I have never been more fussed over or mother-henned."

"The Doctor does have a tendency to…hover." The lift stopped and the two girls got out. Maddy pointed back at Spock.

"You don't tell anyone we were talking about bras!" She heard an intake of breath behind her. She turned around to see McCoy and Kirk, back from the away mission.

"I mean….flaws! Don't tell anyone about my flaws!" McCoy glared at Spock and took Maddy's arm.

"I don't want you around him when you're drugged. Why in tarnation were you talking about bras?" Spock just stood there, eyebrow raised. McCoy looked at him suspiciously.

"Stop being a bad influence on her, hobgoblin."

"Leonard, I'm fine I just wanted a real shower." McCoy looked at her and Maddy attempted to give him her best puppy dog eyes. It didn't work.

"Is that why you're out of the sickbay? Does Chapel know? What if you had a relapse and got sick again? Wandering around the ship is damn foolish in your condition."

"But it's boring." Maddy felt like a little kid caught playing hooky from school.

"You could have hurt yourself." Maddy took a deep breath, this was McCoy, this was worried McCoy, she shouldn't take anything to heart. She did technically die for a bit, so he had a right to hover, still…

"Leonard, all I wanted was a shower and a change of clothes, don't blame Spock he's just always in the lift. He wasn't in on my jailbreak, and he couldn't help hearing my song of bras. Now," She took her arm out of his hand. "I'm going to use a real shower, or at least the best I can get in this time, and _then _I'll go back to the sickbay." She turned and began to hobble away, then turned back.

"Unless of course, you want to come with?" Kirk and Lia hurriedly got onto the lift, giggling, and the door slid closed behind them.

"That's one way to get her way."

-/-

"Oh, it's fine, Tonia, Tonia…" Tonia blearily opened her eyes to see Janice hovering over her. She gestured behind her.

"Mr. Hale is here to see you." Tonia hurriedly tried to sit up as her boss held out a hand.

"No please, don't strain yourself; I just wanted to bring these over." He set a small vase of daisies on her bedside table and straightened.

"Oh, thank you, I'm sorry I never reminded you about your board meeting." Her boss laughed lightly.

"Yes, I completely forgot about it, but don't worry about me, you just relax." Tonia looked at Robert and smiled lightly, warm brown eyes smiled back at her and she remembered what Maddy had told her about 'making a move'. Maybe not right now, she told herself, but she couldn't help but blush when he told her he missed her.

-/-

Maddy stared at the ceiling in her room, wide wake in the middle of the night. She wanted to get up and turn on the lights and try to find something to preoccupy her mind, but McCoy's arm was slung around her waist and she didn't want to wake him. So, instead of being able to distract herself Maddy was left thinking about what happened. She was left thinking about Barrows and Rand and everything they must have gone through. When she and Lia appeared in this world, they had McCoy and Kirk and Spock and Scotty to help them and to watch out for them. Barrows and Rand had no one. They had nothing and no one to help them or to depend on. While she was happily traveling around space the two of them had been struggling to survive.

She didn't even think about them very often! In the beginning she did, but as time passed she thought about them less and less and now she was sickened by herself. How could she have done this? Why hadn't she cared about it before now? Was she really that selfish? Tears threatened to spill down her face and she tried to stop herself from crying. She failed. The tears started falling and as quietly as possible she removed McCoy's arm from around her and slipped into the bathroom. She ran the water and washed her face trying to make the tears disappear. She slumped against the wall and ran her hands through her hair. Her leg hurt and her body shook as she tried not to make any noise as she cried.

"Madeline?" Great, apparently she wasn't quiet enough. She rubbed her eyes, hoping to wipe away any hint of tears before McCoy turned on the lights. She wasn't fast enough. The lights flickered on and McCoy caught sight of the tear stains on Maddy's cheeks. He kneeled down next to her and wrapped his arms around her. They sat quietly for some time. Maddy relaxed and leaned her head against McCoy's shoulder, her tears finally abated.

"Madeline?"

"I ruined their lives." McCoy's grip around her tightened, he pressed his lips against her head before whispering in her ear.

"You didn't ruin anyone's lives."

"Yes I did!" Maddy snapped. "I ruined their lives! And I didn't even care! I ruined Barrow's life and Rand's and I probably ruined Lia's too. It was my idea to go to San Francisco and my idea to stay around the Golden Gate Bridge even after it started raining, and once we were here I was so happy I didn't even care about anyone else. I was so so happy and I don't deserve to be." Maddy had started crying again. "It was just a game to me! Just one stupid happy game that I was so excited about. I was _so _happy. I was happy to be with you I was happy to be away from my mundane life. I was so happy that I just didn't care about anything else.

"It's all my fault. Barrows and Rand don't have anybody back home, at least I have you, but they don't have anyone or anything, and I ruined their lives. I got my wish and sentenced two people to exile in the process. They don't deserve that. I don't deserve to be here. No one deserves what the two of them have gone through and I just keep ruining people's lives."

"And what are you going to do about it?"

"Sorry?" He took her by the shoulders.

"You can't go back, they can't come back, so what are you going to do? Just sit here and be miserable? That doesn't help anybody. All you can do now is live, and that's all they can do too. You can't do anything about it, not a thing. It's useless to cry about it now; you would do them wrong by condemning yourself." Maddy sniffled but said nothing. She still blamed herself, but what he said made sense.

"I…..guess." He sighed, sensing she wasn't convinced.

"Come on, you won't deny an old man his sleep, will you?" She lightly hit his arm.

"You're not old."

"And you're not at fault." She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him.

"Thank you." She smiled at him. "Now come on, I need my sleep too. I _am _older than you, after all." He laughed and led her back to bed, shaking his head.


End file.
